Hi all, I have now gotten Day Of Destruction! to a basic complete working level now...

You can put in credits, start and play a game (only the singularity weapon works currently though).

If you destroy all the asteroids before the earth damage gets too large (10 asteroid hits currently), you complete the level and you then can go to the next level.

If 10 asteroids hits the earth then the game is over (need to add some continues here where applicable).

If you got a high score (has up to 20 best scores; might change that to 10 best scores), you get to enter your name so it is placed on the high score table!

Otherwise you just go to the main screen ready to enter more credits and play more games :)

I will try and upload this version somewhere with the necessary files so people can try it out...it does need lots more tweaking (asteroid speeds, amounts of asteroids coming at the earth at one time, etc.), and the main primary weapon needs to be added, but at least the basic game is working...yay!

Till next time dudes ;)

Hi all, back again :)

I now have added more information to my game screen display, like how much energy you have left to fire with (each weapon has an associated energy cost which is removed from the energy bar).

The energy bar does recharge over time, but at a slower rate than when firing weapons.

There is also an Earth damage bar, but that isn't implemented as of yet due to asteroids not being able to collide with the planet yet.

Oh yeah, and there are now stars...LOL

I have now have two weapons in the game - a singularity blast as well as the repulsor blast.

The singularity blast creates a swirling mass of particles that will suck any asteroids that are too close into itself and destroy them!  It is a bit hard to see in the picture below, but those particles are swirling around their center and are sucking that asteroid into itself :)

The repulsor blast doesn't do anything yet, but it will ;)

I have now also added in an end of level screen which displays the level number just completed, the score and lets you press fire to continue to the next level.

Till next time dudes :)

I have now integrated the particle systems into the main game now...see the screenshots below :)

I haven't added in particle trails yet for the repulsor blasts.

There is also no collision detection yet, but the particles from the explosions (including shock-waves) will check for collisions between asteroids and then do the appropriate actions (theoretically) LOL ;)

Repulsor blasts + beginnings of explosions:

 

Explosions expanded:

 

cheers,
Paul

Whoa! An update...yay!

I have been working on a simple particle system that I can use to create various effects in my game by tweaking various parameters, and overriding the ResetParticle() and Update() methods :)

See the screenshot and video link below for some explosions including shock-waves!  I needed to work on this part as shock-waves are integral to the game where they can repulse or destroy asteroids...

particles test video (swf)

Till next time :)
Paul

Hmm...only 24 days left till the end of the PGDAnnual 2009 - Arcadia competition, and I STILL don't have anything resembling a playable game...D'OH!

I really need to pull my finger out and get back into this...

Hopefully I will have some more updates real soon :)