Roidz BETA release... Be Kind please. ;)

OK, This is the Beta Test of the game, this means there are still a good few things missing, in saying that thought there is still enough here to give anyone who likes blasters a few minutes of fun.


Download Its about 15 meg, Big I know , I havent compressed anything yet. So I expect it to be smaller.


The Kays/Controls Are Simple.

Right Mouse to Thrust in the direction your pointing.
Left Mouse to Shoot at your target reticle.

There are 3 Power ups, Green , Red and Blue.
Each have different abilities.

There are about 10 levels, the level.txt file holds the level data its all in plain text so it should be easy enough for you to play with it. If you want more info on the way this file is made up just ask.

Cheat Buttons.
1 - Firelevel 1
2 & 3 ^^ 2,3

4 - Release a Random Asteroid, erm 9 I think in total each made of a different thing, so you got gold silver lava DarkMatter Iron rock and so on. Each have the amount of strength that you would expect. like Iron is harder to kill than say a Mud Asteroid.

5 - 6 and 7 As the fire type, Pulse , Magma and Plasma

Pulse Fire is low in damage and scatters about a lot.
Magma is stronger than pulse but is more focused.
Plasma is Spread out and does the most damage.

the guns are a little un balanced at the moment, but im working on it, so any ideas about them would be good.

Erm trying to think if I have left anything out, that you really need to know.

Oh well. Enjoy, and please dont be to harsh on me.

downloading

will give it a good run

Still got lots to add, so any good helpfull comments have a good chance of ending up in game.

hmm.. everything looks decent.. Im only concerned about a few gameplay issues..

one thing is the mouse control.. when you fly across the screen, while fireing at a celestial body (^^), you sometimes cross the border and shifts to the other side of the screen.. this is normal, however the aiming ensures that you don't need to aim, you just hold your mouse where you used to and you will continue to shoot at the object.. this is one thing that deducts a great amount of gameplay in my opinion.

and it lacked a certain... incentive? is that even a word? ^^ I played through the 10 levels, but I only did it to test it, and wouldn't have bothered just for the "fun" factor.. so you need to put something in there somewhere.. sorry I am so vague, but I really don't know what it would be..

Oh yeah, it was smoooooooth and looked very nice btw ^^

Thanks Ash.


If I get what your meaning, then if for example Im blasting an asteroid and move out of bounds and I get warped to the other side, then I can just keep holding fire and still hit the same asteroid, so its not aiming. ?

Ok I dont agree, you might have noticed that the bullet distance does not reach from one side of the screen to the other unless its on full power, You will also note that you do have to aim cos if you just hold fire and keep your mouse still, the asteroid will move out of the light of fire.



This will come in a few form's

One is a commet, this will spawn at random, and Swoosh through the screen really fast, if you happen to be sitting still when this spawns YOU WILL DIE, as it will always be heading right at you.

Two, There are going to be alien Ships, 3 type to start out with, A Small ship that will collided with an asteroid and send it racing off in your direction, Another will be a fighter that will fly through the level shooting at you when ever your in its line of sight. and the 3rd will be a battle ship, thats going to come in all guns blazzing, for this your going to have to shoot and move shoot and move.

Not to mention while all this is on going still taking out the asteroids.

Three the Kamakazi roid, this will be another random condition to keep the player on his toes. in a nut shell when you destry a roid and it splits into two smaller roids, if the Kamakazi condition is met the new roid will spin off in your direction. again keeping you on the move.

My end Aim is to keep the player moving, the more you move the bigger tha chance of being hit by roids mines or aliens. and the more you move, the better your skill in the game will become.

Anyway I await anyone elses opinions. Im looking for other ways than the ones Iv said above to improve the gameplay.

had a quick play for about an hour

yep totaly agree as i did tend to sit still and just fire, it got a bit tedious

instead of just power ups, what about add ons to the ship, maybe new guns go floating past that you have to dock with to attach them, apart from being a power up this would make the ship slightly bigger, so you get more fire power but you are also more of a target, even power ups from inside asteroids

loved the explosions and sounds and the physics of the ship bouncing off asteroids is great

i think it just lacked the panic factor

I agree with "tiler", and I agree with you, "Yavin".. added panic factors like a comet and stuff will definately be a plus ^^

Yeah I like the Gun powerup idea, I will have to add that to my todo list.

I have just added a Skull mesh to my models folder, if you pick this up in game its going to reduce all asteroids to small ones and remove your shield for 60 secnds. So any impact will reduce your shielding . so if you have full shield when you hit it, you will then be able to take 3 rapid hits from small roids and it will kill you, instead of your shield protecting you for a few seconds.

thanks for the feedback guys.

So I think next thing I'm going to do then is work on the weapons and try and give them more balance and then addin some new powerup type guns and stuff. like suggested.

Question - Did any of you turn of the GLOW/Bloom. ?? or did you leave it nice and bright .

Good:

Very playable, loved the control scheme.
Nice graphics and feel.

Bad:
Asteroids too dark - very annoying and a bad design call

Bloom:
perhaps selective. no need to apply it to the entire screen?

To move more:
have more temptation such as shield replacement powerups, and bonus points?

Hi yavin,

[EDIT: the music problem is cos of my PC]

The backgrounds are pictures from Hubble and/or NASA, or some other observatories. I love astronomy and i have seen all of those pictures a thousand times, so i am also not sure about the rights you have to put them in your game. However, it is very possible that it's ok. Otherwise the pictures are really blurred. You can find higher resolution images on sites such as www.space.com maybe? There are many galeries online.

Like in "Star Raider" you have all your files in normal folders. Why dont you pack them somewhere so not everyone can see them and modify them, etc. Just looks more professional at least.

Otherwise really nice stuff. I like the way the mouse movement is solved, and i personally find your version of "asteroids" the most fun i have ever played :) meaning i like the gameplay. BUT, because it is easier to shoot things, make the levels harder where for example sometimes you start a level with MAAANY smallest asteroids and you have to focus on flying and avoiding them.

Also i believe you could add your own touches such as that "docking" feature or for example you could add an asteroid that is moving irregularily, like dodging bullets or moving up down left and right randomly. This would be a good panic factor because you would have to stay away from such a crazy asteroid you never know which way it would hit. And make it harder to split as well! Hope you like that idea :)

Yeah Nasa I think it was, I didnt know they could copyright a picture of stuff in space. I'm probably wrong though, Your also right about seeing them all over the place, since I stuck them in iv seen them in add's mag's tv and a film.

TBH though I cant see Nasa chasin me down for using a picture taken from hubble for a game.








Warning I'm going to go OFF-TOPIC here and dont really want this thread bogged down with this off-topic stuff. I just feel strong enough about this that I have to reply to it.



In Short no. I hate games that tuck files away, I think its bad Design and bad planning. One look at the games community today will show you that ppl like to mess with games, they like to make their own levels, insert their oen sound files and add their own backgrounds.

Your thoughts about it looking more pro by tucking things away is false as well. in fact the top 5 best selling games on the market today in any field, all have their media in folders, so that its easy for their community to mod tha game.

MODing is here to stay, like it or not, So I think a lot of people are going to have to chose to open up their games and let them be moded, which will build community and get it played more, or close the games down and limit the amount of fun ppl have with them.

Dont get me wrong, if its core to the game, like saved ini data or saved files that cant be touched then by all means hide them away, but if not just leave them out to be edited.