It’s not much, but it’s a complete experience. I wanted to create a full game (not a demo) before my vacation ended and it looks like I’ve got 2 days to spare.

Enter “SUPER FLYING ROBOT GAME!“, a helicopter clone featuring the lovable robots, well… one robot.

Right now the level just repeats the same pattern of tiles, but the level file can be modified in a text editor to make more interesting maps. More instructions are included in the zip. Enjoy.

I’ve spent a couple hours each morning this week working on the animation system and adding a few new features to the graphics engine. You’ll notice the engine now supports animated sprites.  So here’s another random demo to play with. No physics or sound just yet. Sorry, haven’t had much time to work on the project.

Here’s a key for the debug text

vx = Velocity in X

vy = Velocity in Y

A = Animation number

F = Frame number

Metal Slug sprite by SNK.

It sure has been a while. Classes have been preventing me from pursuing any personal projects at all. Even now, during the Summer, I’ve only had a couple days to devote to rewriting the Bob Engine, my personal game project. If you don’t already know, Space Bob is a gravity platformer concept I came up with about a year ago and have been working on in my spare time. The first iteration of the engine became too convoluted and messy so I scrapped it and started rewriting the entire thing.

As you can see, I’ve got a lot of the graphics code done already. Text is rendered in real time and just today, I implemented a simple event handler which I’m going to expand to include windows joysticks and a mouse listener.

Here’s a link to the demo.

By the way, I beat Metroid 1 on the NES and Super Metroid on the SNES just over a week ago, so I’m still on this retro trip. Enjoy.

[EDIT]: It took me all night, a lot longer than I thought it would, but the Joystick interface is flushed out. Any plug and play USB controller should work. Give it a try.

This is a modified version of my initial game concept for my group’s software engineering class project. They don’t like my cartoony art, but mechanically, it’s what we’re shooting for.

It ought to be done by the end of April, when our class ends.

I’m taking a Software Engineering course this semester. This is a graphical layout I’m working on for my group’s game. It’s a basic turn-based strategy game. I hope this goes over well; we can’t seem to agree on anything.

All those Bob concepts sure came in handy.

Bob is a space mechanic, an alcoholic and a cynic. The powerful electromagnet on his back allows him to levitate over or attach to metal surfaces and he’ll need it when gravity turns on it’s side or reverses completely.

This demo only allows the user to turn gravity on and off. In later builds, you will be able to change the direction and magnitude of various forces and use the jet pack (mag pack?) appropriately.

Download the demo here.

Please keep in mind that all the assets (art / sound) are temporary and mostly out of sync. They’re only placeholders. This is also a debug build, hence the various statistics on the screen. Feel free to ignore them or record them with great interest — whichever.

The song in this Demo is also a placeholder, something I thought fit the character and setting well. It’s a cropped version of “Starship Supercool_” and it was made by Paulemann236. His profile on newgrounds can be found here.

Enjoy.

Posting real quick before I have to get my ass to class. This looks more like a real space mechanic don’t you think? Comments and ideas welcome.

EDIT: I’m  back. Didn’t get as much work done for my classes as I would like to, but it’s 10:00 PM now and for tonight, I am done. While this is not the final concept for Bob, it’s pretty close to perfect. I wanted to credit my classmate and good buddy, Eric, for this one. After asking him for advice on my previous “Astronaut” version of the character and explaining Bob’s occupation as a space mechanic, he suggested I make him a more traditional mechanic, toolbelt and all. He already had the belt so I decided to go all out and make him a hillbilly astronaut.

Beer is health and will give the player control problems as Bob will get drunk in REAL TIME! He’ll also be able to throw the empty cans at enemies for points and damage. The wrench is his primary weapon as he is not a supersoldier-cyborg or hot bounty hunter. That thing on his back is my own design, a powerful electromagnet that functions as a jet pack, but only over metal surfaces.

Thanks again, Eric. This was all you, man.

More astronaut, less space marine, I think. It’s a more original approach to 2D side scrolling.

The game engine is almost done. I have it running perfectly now, very simple, very organized, all original. All it needs is a level class, but before I can implement that, I need to figure out what kind of game play I want to achieve. Right now, I’m considering either puzzle platforming or treasure hunting.

For the first version of the game, I’m concentrating on creating a simple working demo, which means I won’t be implementing enemy ai, projectiles, particles, net code or powerups. But there will be several levels to explore and do crap in.

What I have already included is a jetpack, gravity manipulation platforming, joystick support, level hazards and sound. Bob’s sprite design only needs to be finalized and animated before I can post a tech demo. So if you have any suggestions, feel free to email me or comment.

Waiting for class to start. Couldn’t think well enough to study. No sleep. Head hurts. Can’t use first person identifiers when tired.

Concept images for a square sprite character. The game engine is almost done. After I implement the levels, I’ll post a tech demo here.

Space Bob is a temp name for this project. I don’t know what to call it just yet, but for those of you who like indie games, this one is a sprite-based 2D sides-crolling co-operative gravity platformer. As of this post, I have a working physics engine, graphics engine and control interface with options to use either a joystick or keyboard. I think I’m going to incorporate racing a puzzle mechanics to start off, but also typical multiplayer modes once netcode the netcode is implemented.

SDL is remarkably user-friendly. The API is incredibly simple and everything I’ve used works great. I love the library. If you’re into games development, you should check it out.