All progress logs

Well, my task isn’t what I thought I would get, but it’s a good idea. Got my framework setup, and I’ll start designing.

I have a Windows Machine, and for this project I’ll use C++ with Allegro 4.9.14. My compiler is MINGW and the IDE I’ll use is Code::Blocks. And for my luck, my recipient is a Windows machine.

Wish me good luck ;)

Just had my first look at the assignment. I am glad the author made his requests compatiable with each other. The main request was for a Tower Defense style game, so I will do one of those. Not sure how I will work Christmass Ninjas, or swords into it, but I will find a way.

I decided on the Manhattan game (Top view of Manhattan. Guide a bunch of Santas. Don´t let kids see two Santas on same place!). Great idea, no clue of where I can find Manhattan sprites.

I did find a great map of Manhattan highlighting main areas, streets and buildings. That’s great as I’m planning to re-create that and use it in game.

It will be a top view of Manhattan, of course, Santas spawning around the scrollable map. You can click and point them towards an area, but gotta watch out on the little kids. Santas and kids should interact and they should have SIM-like icons above their heads so you can see how they feel about Christmas. More Santas, more joy, more points. A kid seeing a double Santa will be disappointed and your scoring will decreased. Also, the Santa will disappear thus making less points/time.

Hope I’ll be able to deliver a map preview within the next hours.

That’s it, for now :D

Later edit: Manhattan is BIG!

And this when they learned to fight back X(

Well, my task wasn’t one of my highly voted ones (I think) but it’s still good! I am going to be doing the “You are Santa Claus and you have to deliver presents for good people but hurt naughty people” part, because it’s just so general that I can create pretty much anything for it… I suppose the second one “You are an elf that steals and sells Christmas presents to the black market” could be the modus operandi of the villain though, we’ll see.

In any event, the game I will be making will be a clone of Sopwith. I just played it a bit to get a hang of the critical points of it. One thing I want to stress is the destructibility of the environment, something that Sopwith has, but does not utilize all that much. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward clone with improved graphics etc.

You will be Santa, flying upon your jet-propulsed sleigh, armed with powerful chainguns (that shoot bullets with depleted glee), bombs and whatever other weapons I can think of as I go. The secondary goal of delivering presents will be accomplished by you… probably dropping sacks of goodness onto cities? Or individual buildings?

Next, the level design… something randomly generated, hopefully… we’ll see how that goes.

Enemies… naughty kids will have some planes that try to shoot you down, perhaps some AA turrets too. Also, from Sopwith, we’ll have birds and animals that you can run into (but shouldn’t!).

Not sure of the resolution yet… probably 640 by 480 with an option to upscale it 2x.