Shooter Engine Test

[Monsterbox]

Hello boys and girls. I'd like to extend an invite to you all to shoot some zombies (http://monsterb0x.com/flash/shooter0102.html)!

After a couple days arm-wrestling with ActionScript I've managed to put together a prototype shooter engine in Flash. It's a Duck Hunt/Area 51 style shooting engine and all of the graphics are placeholders for now (you don't like my shitty zombie? WTF?!) and it doesn't keep score yet, but it has all the basics:


Shoot
Reload
Custom Crosshair Cursor
Track Hits
Track Misses
Calculate Hit %
Health Bar
Zombies have a chance to do damage
Game Over screen when you've taken enough damage.The idea is to get most of the "bones" in place and then I can go wild on level design/story implementation from there.

Would love to hear some feedback from people about what they think about this incarnation and what they might like to see in the future. (Aside from real graphics. :))

Thanks guys, the feedback is always appreciated!

[eggnog]

It's not bad monsterbox. Aside from being a fairly generic flash shooter, I played it for about 10 minutes, whatever keeps me from studying for my exams.

I'd possibly like to see the gun moving around the screen where you aim it, but everyone has that, so either way it doesn't really matter.

I know you're working with flash (obviously) and XNA, so are you going to join the Dev club on the 360? Also, if you were to make this a game, how would you implement it on the 360, considering its a controller and not a mouse?

[vincesecuricor2]

pretty cool although i kinda cant see how my life depletes and i get misses?

[Monsterbox]

It's not bad monsterbox. Aside from being a fairly generic flash shooter, I played it for about 10 minutes, whatever keeps me from studying for my exams.
It's simply an engine test, so at this point it's not even a generic flash shooter yet. ;)

I'd possibly like to see the gun moving around the screen where you aim it, but everyone has that, so either way it doesn't really matter.
I purposely didn't do that actually. I've found that for the overhead it adds (in terms of assets and code) the effect of the gun rotating at the bottom of the screen doesn't add anything meaningful. When the time comes, I'll have a display in the corner that tells which weapon is active and this isn't a FPS, it's more of an arcade-style shooter.

I know you're working with flash (obviously) and XNA, so are you going to join the Dev club on the 360? Also, if you were to make this a game, how would you implement it on the 360, considering its a controller and not a mouse?
If the price of the Dev Club for 360 remains reasonable, then yes, I will definitely be joining the Dev Club.

And, as far as this game is concerned, the only way I would release something like this for the 360 is if they gave me Lightgun support. Shooters just aren't shooters unless you have a real gun to hold. I would turn it into something like Time Crisis or Area 51 (which is the effect I'm going for here, but using the mouse since it is a Flash game) and do some fun stuff with the gun. Right now I'm mostly making as many different games and games of as many different types as I can to get the experience under my belt.

Hopefully, I can come up with some good practices and basic skills for porting over to the XNA development environment. Who knows, I might even throw in one or two of the Flash games (redeveloped) for bonus stages or as minigames in an XNA product.

Secret Achievement: Of The Dead 15GS - Unlock the Zombie Shooter demo.
hehe ;)


pretty cool although i kinda cant see how my life depletes and i get misses?
Do you mean that you don't understand how it happens, or it's difficult to read the display?

[PerpetualHeaven]

Why do they flash?
I thought they flashed when it counted as a hit and i'm thinking "how the hell did I hit them?"
Wait, actually when I think about it that means they're going down right?
It's not too shabby you're on your way.

[Monsterbox]

Why do they flash?
Actually, it's an old-school Final Fantasy reference. They flash when they "attack". So; they flash, then the damage roll happens; then you either get hit or the attack misses. Attacks will be more elaborate in the real game, I just wanted some visual cue that the engine was processing the attack correctly.

It's not too shabby you're on your way.
Thanks very much. Now all I need to do is find an actual artist, or get some serious drawing practice in. ;)

[Lionheart VI]

Man, how do you make a sig?

[vincesecuricor2]

lionheart ur way off topic but try seeing a new guy called shaaady souljah he makes them for u (i think)

[Monsterbox]

Man, how do you make a sig?
Using Flash and/or Photoshop generally. The sig with Live info on it was made over at MGC.net.

So, what do you think of the engine?

[Maka]

I got more than 100 hits, but it went back to zero.... So maybe a 3 digit number possiblity?

[Monsterbox]

I got more than 100 hits, but it went back to zero.... So maybe a 3 digit number possiblity?
It did?

I'll have to look into it. Honestly, I hadn't gone much over a couple dozen hits for testing hit % purposes. There shouldn't be any limit to the hit counter, so I'll have to see what's up. Thanks for the feedback.

-EDIT-
Checked it out. It doesn't actually go back to zero, it's just that the "1" for 100 is right in line with that window-beam-thing which makes it tough to see. If you get over 200 it'll show back up again. I'm going to make the scoring system and display different in the final version, so not much of a bother on that right now.

[Maka]

Youre right, It is there, a little hard to see...