Games Earth Defence Fighter Worklog update

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Good afternoon. It’s a chilly November day here in Cambridge and I thought I’d write a quick update on how things are going with my current game project “Earth Defence Fighter”

I’ve posted a quick gameplay video below showing the current state of the game.


After the success of my last games, I’ve decided to keep a worklog for the development of this game, I thought it might be interesting for other game developers to read, and maybe even build up some hype for my amazing space shooter game!

Current source code state: 1582 lines, 13 custom types, 83 media files

I’ve just implemented the basic of generating alien attack waves during levels. I’ve written a function that generates alien objects based on four parameters: alienType, number, position, direction.

So it’s what type of alien (each one is numbered), how many in the attack wave, what position (this differs per alien type, for type 1 it’s which column coming down the screen, for type 2 it’s how far up the side of the screen it comes in) and direction (right=1,left=2,down=3)

I’ve got two alien types as you can see in the video, the final game will have five or six. As you progress in levels the number of aliens will go up, they’ll fire at you more and they’ll move faster. I’m sure it will take some fine tuning to make this feel right at the higher levels, I want it frantic, but not so crazy you can’t play it.

I have a set list of tasks I’m working on to release the first version, right now I’m working on the graphic files, sizing them all correctly, putting together spritesheets for animated sprites (like the explosions), and then it’s onto working on the main menu.

Remember to check back next week for my next update.

Known issues:
Level doesn't end when player dies
Score does work
Only start game works on main menu
Score doesn't save
Only two enemy types
Enemy types don't get harder with level number
second touch on screen teleports ship
 
Last edited:

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Todays other notes:

tightened triple fire spread
altered double fire bullet graphic to match single fire
fixed double fire not picking up bug
fixed black box for explosions on low end phones bug (reduced graphic size)
added delay inbetween attack waves
fixed multitouch pointer issues
added enemy explosion particles
amended extra life powerup graphic for new ship
added score combo
added score functionality
added score messages
added second bomb type image
adjusted bomb type object to allow for btype value
increased spacing on atype 2
swapped enemy1 and enemy2 graphics
 

wonder

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
I like it, the game looks so damn sexy!! Good choice of assets and smooth gameplay! :)
 

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Quick update:
I keep forgetting to use vectors, I really must use them more!
I normally handle everything movement based myself using my own calculations, but I keep forgetting how much easier vectores in libgdx makes things.

So now my alien type has changed from:
Type typAlien(x As Float, y As Float, mx As Float, my As Float, fireDelay As Float, alive As Boolean, AType As Int, cx As Int, angle As Float, life As Int)
to
Type typAlien(x As Float, y As Float, vec As lgMathVector2, fireDelay As Float, alive As Boolean, AType As Int, cx As Int, life As Int)

I'll extend this further but for now it makes things simpler.
 

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Success! Levels are now loaded from files. I've gone for the scripted level approach, I can use notepad to write levels using a simple csv format I've come up with. This allows me to quickly write what type of alien, how many, what direction and what delay before the next attack. I've also started to add level boss code too.

Check out the youtube video below, hopefully you'll be able to tell it's progressing well.

 

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Okay, so I've implemented enemy flashes when they get hit, turns out it was easy. I've never played with the batch.setcolorrbga command but that's all you need. Just add a new value of flash to the alien custom type, then set it to ten, reduce that number each frame and use it to set the setcolor command to give a nice red flash to enemies when they get hit. You'll see it in the next video. Along with hopefully a level select map and boss fights. This is shaping up to be my best game yet. I just want it finished before Christmas, then I'll have released four games this year.
 

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Another quick update video, multiple levels, boss does things.


The boss sticking to the right side of the screen has now been fixed so it moves left and right.
 
Last edited:

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hi @wonder sorry for the lack of update's. Life's getting ine way right now, my evenings are all taken up with children, the 3 year old goes to bed at 7:30 but the 3 month old stays awake till after 10pm most nights, so I have no time. Work is heavy right now too, so no spare time to work during lunch breaks or slow periods. I'm working on a azure network of 100 VMs and trying to learn teamcity and octopus development tools too!
But I do have a good tasklist to work on for the game, but it will likely be new year before it comes out in any form.
 

wonder

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
No worries, Andy. :)
I know how difficult it is to keep development going at a steady pace, it has been difficult for me to find time to code as well.

Regarding your tasklist, do you use a specific tool?
I use Trello to keep things organized.
 

wonder

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Please have a look at Trello, it's awesome!
Advantages:
- Free
- Online (browser or app)
- User friendly (you can teach an 8-year-old how to use it)
- Public or Private (you decide)

An an example, here's my Kingdom Crisis board:
https://trello.com/b/mXEBQff3/kz2d
 
Last edited:

andymc

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Please have a look at Trello, it's awesome!
OMG @wonder that is awesome! This changes everything, and it has an Android app for my phone and tablet. Love it, thanks for showing me this!

Wow, this is great! I've already transferred my Earth defence fighter list to it and have labelled things properly as bugs/features/etc...
 
Last edited:
Top