Asteroids 3D - I actually finished a game...

I've been programming for some time now, but I don't think I've *ever* actually got a game near anything like "completion". Ha!

well, it took me roughly 3-4 days of solid programming, and another month or so to fine tune, but here it is:



Asteroids 3D (4.8Mb)

I know it's not the most original idea, but I tried to spice it up a bit with some more 'dynamic' elements like turrets, tractor beams, missiles, etc.

It's by no means perfect (and easy to break if you know how and have the patience), but I'm at a stage where I'm happy with it.

Tell me what you think! :)

Hi,

what i like is the feeling that i'm lost in space...i am in space...the silence is great... :O)

What i dislike is the radar as i never knew if i had to raise or lower my nose. Moving up and down is pretty hard.

I also would have welcomed a level with more asteroids and less fighters.


Greetings,

taumel

Congratulations on your resolve!

Suggestions:

- less visual effects for firing, more visual effects for successful hits - especially important for long-range combat
- visual cue for being in firing range of a target (how far do my shots go?)
- ever-present particles (dots) near your ship so you can easily judge your speed (while tracking a moving target, I never know how much lateral velocity I have)
- method of hinting at pitch on radar
- off-screen indicators for close-by targets that aren't in your field of view (arrows by the edges of the screen)

Hey well done for finishing! Of courses there's much more you could do, like an options page, music etc. Is the weapon sound a star trek photon torpedo noise?

Grey Alien: Actually it is a torpedo. I only wanted it as a placeholder sound, but I liked it too much as is. :D And I did put some music in intitially, but it made the zip file too big. Put a CD in instead. ;)

Octothorpe: You're right, I can do a lot more to improve on this. I was learning while making this though, so the coding structure isn't as good as I could do it now. For example, each enemy is a seperate type. If I were to go back and remake it, I'd put all the enemies in one type. I'm not sure it's worth going back and adding more in because given how much I'd need to change it, I might as well go back and rewrite it. I might do some day though. In fact I probably will since I like little games like this!

Taumel: I originally made the radar similar to the radar in Frontier: Elite, with a stalk coming from each object to show the height between you and the object. This worked alright, but looked pretty ugly. I have a half-finished 3D radar and if/when I rewrite this, I'll put it in. :)

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi,

the elite radar worked pretty well and hmm doesn't look ugly per se...hmm grabbed out an old screenshot from a shockwavedemo i once did:



Well, i liked it...

But maybe you will get problems if there are too many objects around...getting quite complex then i guess.

Could you also make some levels with only asteroids or at least less enemies in it? I really like the relaxed space/silence atmosphere or maybe some country/johnny cash music running in the background...for me "burning ring of fire would rock in this situation" And it burns burns burns... ;O)

A external musicfile. If available then play it?


Greetings,

taumel

hm, that's a funky good idea. I'm totally imagining some guy in a trucker hat who's job is to fly around and clear debris in orbit.

Yeah and wearing a cowboy hat, drinking beer and a little spaceship to smuggle and blast some asteroids. What do i need more? :O)

"But maybe you will get problems if there are too many objects around...getting quite complex then i guess."

Yeah, that was the main problem really. There were so many stalks they were obscuring things! I have an idea for a 3d radar which should work better though. :)

"Could you also make some levels with only asteroids or at least less enemies in it? I really like the relaxed space/silence atmosphere or maybe some country/johnny cash music running in the background...for me "burning ring of fire would rock in this situation" And it burns burns burns... ;O)"
I guess I could tweak it so there's more rock blasting. The only thing that bothers me about that though is that can get dull quite fast. For atmosphere it's great, but longevity not really. Perhaps I could alternate between rock-blasting levels and straight dog fights? I'll look into the music selection, I'm not sure how I'll approach that yet!

multiplayer! (not easy tho')

I haven't quite got that far yet. ;)

Congrats!