uDG: Rescue

[NCarter]

Rescue 1.0.0d1 was released a few days ago, but I thought I'd keep it a secret from as many people as possible! :rolleyes:

You can download it from my website (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue). There's no game to speak of yet, but have a go at flying the spaceship and tell me what you think! I'm particularly interested in finding out which OS versions it will work on and what hardware it runs acceptably on.

I've put some screenshots and in-progress stuff up in my uDG blog (http://www.udevgames.com/index.php?option=com_mamblog&task=show&action=user&id=133). There's also a summary of my planned design in the Read Me file that comes with the game.

For people who don't read Read Me files, these are the controls:

Cursor keys or mouse - yaw and pitch (turning left, right, up and down)
Edit the preferences file if you prefer the pitch axis to be reversed.

W - forward thrust
S - reverse thrust
A - roll left
D - roll right

If you hold the Command key down along with the WASD keys, the spaceship will slew (fly sideways) in the direction you specify.

All the thrust keys have to be held down if you want to keep moving - let go and your ship will automatically apply retro thrust and stop.

To quit the game, press Escape or Command-Q.
One last thing: you may want to edit the preferences file to make sure it'll choose an optimal screen mode.

[EvolPenguin]

Fun, the flying is a little slow though, I don't seem to be going anywhere. I love the full 3d movement. I like the reverse axis more, because it is more realistic. It is no harder, and much more fun. Not much more to say....

Alex

[kelvin]

Purty.
It's like flying through an interstellar bag of rice. The asteroids could be a bit more textured, but I'm sure that's just because of the stage of development. The ship looks great.

[JustinFic]

I actually really like the graphics too. Both the ship designs are good (I saw the new one on your blog) and the newer one I think would be cooler (especially if you threw in those moving parts!)

It took me awhile to get used to the controls. I'm particularly bad when it comes to rotational inertia though :) I definitely liked the drag and how you come to a stop eventually.

Looking forward to the gameplay- the design sounds really cool. I want to slap alien ships around with the robot arm :love:

[madmacgames]

I've lost my sound! this is kinda odd, but after quitting (cmd + q), my powerbook made some weird sounds coming from the upper left area and my actual sound died until it was done (took about 30 seconds after I quit the game for it to stop). Is ok now.

Also during the gameplay, my hard drive made a continuous very fast ticking noise. It wasn't a normal HD sound, and really had me kind of worried, so I didn't play very long.

Speed was good, other than it felt like I was flying really slow, but was kinda hard to tell as there wasn't much but distant stars to judge by.

running 1Ghz 12" powerbook
Mac OS X 10.3.5

[NCarter]

Thanks to everyone for those compliments and comments! :)

Fun, the flying is a little slow though, I don't seem to be going anywhere.
Regarding the speed, it's not supposed to be very fast because your spaceship is a big industrial vehicle rather than a nippy little fighter! That said, I have increased the speed a bit in my working version.

I love the full 3d movement. I like the reverse axis more, because it is more realistic. It is no harder, and much more fun.
Funny thing, I started off with the pitch axis reversed (mainly because I'm used to flight sims), but I realised that a generation of Quake players would probably prefer it the other way round, so I added the option to flip it. I then realised that it's actually more consistent when it isn't flipped: left turns left, up turns up, etc. Hmm. Oh well, at least there's a choice.

It's like flying through an interstellar bag of rice.
Yeah, OSC said "why is it raining?" when he tried it in the IRC channel! :lol:

The asteroids could be a bit more textured, but I'm sure that's just because of the stage of development. The ship looks great.
Yup, textures will come soon, assuming I can figure out how to make FormZ generate useful UV coordinates.

Looking forward to the gameplay- the design sounds really cool. I want to slap alien ships around with the robot arm
Heh, that sounds like a good idea until you realise that all the enemy ships are a hundred times bigger than yours! However, you may be able to sneak up and sabotage them if you can approach them on their blind side.

I've lost my sound! this is kinda odd, but after quitting (cmd + q), my powerbook made some weird sounds coming from the upper left area and my actual sound died until it was done (took about 30 seconds after I quit the game for it to stop). Is ok now.
Ah... that doesn't sound good. If you're losing sound output, it's presumably something to do with SDL because I'm not using sound at all. I'll have to look into that.

Also during the gameplay, my hard drive made a continuous very fast ticking noise. It wasn't a normal HD sound, and really had me kind of worried, so I didn't play very long.
I've noticed that my desktop G5 tends to make more noise when I'm testing the game, and I think it's actually the graphics card fan rather than the hard drive.

If it is the hard drive, maybe it's because error messages are being spewed into the console. Would you mind running the game again to see if there's anything appearing in the console.log and system.log?

Is anyone else experiencing extra hardware noise while playing the game?

Speed was good, other than it felt like I was flying really slow, but was kinda hard to tell as there wasn't much but distant stars to judge by.
As I mentioned above, it isn't supposed to be super fast, but there are some visual cues to give you a clue about your speed. You can see the asteroids and dust particles, can't you? Or are they not appearing on your machine?

[igame3d]

Pretty neat!
Yes you are spewing lots to console, in two test under 10 minutes it wrote 10,482 lines to the console. crazy man crazy.

The "light speed streaks" would work if they were coming/going in the same direction as the ship, they don't seem to do that, cut them down to 10% of the number on screen would seem less like "rain" I think. Neat effect but not ready for prime time yet.

You should give the ship a bit of pitch and yaw whenit is making such changes in direction, full body roll would be neat :). Right now the ship lacks character as it is always in the same ...orientation, if that is the right word.

Looks great, runs great on dual g4 450 with nvidia mx. Can't wait to see the rest of it.

And thank you for not having me crash into rocks, I hate that!

[NCarter]

Yes you are spewing lots to console, in two test under 10 minutes it wrote 10,482 lines to the console. crazy man crazy.
Yes, but what does it say?! It doesn't do that on my machine! :wacko:

I think I may have a nasty problem here because since I've swapped in the new spaceship model on my version, I get a constant stream of GL_INVALID_VALUE errors emitted during CGLFlushDrawable(). Maybe Karl's OBJ loader really doesn't like my models. :(

The "light speed streaks" would work if they were coming/going in the same direction as the ship, they don't seem to do that, cut them down to 10% of the number on screen would seem less like "rain" I think. Neat effect but not ready for prime time yet.
They streak in the direction of the ship's motion rather than the camera's motion - I'm not sure if that's right or wrong. At any rate, it'll probably make more sense when it's viewed from within the cockpit.

You should give the ship a bit of pitch and yaw whenit is making such changes in direction, full body roll would be neat :). Right now the ship lacks character as it is always in the same ...orientation, if that is the right word.
Yeah, the viewpoint is a little dull at the moment. Again, once I've added first person view you'll be able to switch to an external view and look at it from any angle (unless that undermines the gameplay - I'll have to try it).

And thank you for not having me crash into rocks, I hate that!
Sadly, in the finished version you'll be able to mash into rocks with great ease!

Thanks for the feedback! :)

[skyhawk]

it kept hiccupping on my G5, any ideas?

[JustinFic]

Heh, that sounds like a good idea until you realise that all the enemy ships are a hundred times bigger than yours! However, you may be able to sneak up and sabotage them if you can approach them on their blind side.


I'm sold.

Especially if I can pluck out some fuel rods or stuff an asteroid in their exhaust pipe :sneaky:

[NCarter]

it kept hiccupping on my G5, any ideas?
Funny, it runs smoothly on my DP G5 2GHz with a Radeon 9600.

What kind of hiccups are you seeing - really big ones? Were you running programs in the background? Is anything appearing in the console.log or system.log? Also, what graphics card do you have?

Especially if I can pluck out some fuel rods or stuff an asteroid in their exhaust pipe
I'll see what I can do.... ;)

[skyhawk]

Funny, it runs smoothly on my DP G5 2GHz with a Radeon 9200.

What kind of hiccups are you seeing - really big ones? Were you running programs in the background? Is anything appearing in the console.log or system.log? Also, what graphics card do you have?
well, was running at 100%,100% with a 2.5 load average
have a radeon 9600

once I turned off f@h, the game ran alright :lol:
I don't know... show me more

[madmacgames]

Ah... that doesn't sound good. If you're losing sound output, it's presumably something to do with SDL because I'm not using sound at all. I'll have to look into that.
I only got it the 1st time and not again. I just got similar yesterday with SimCity 4, and replugging and unplugging my headphones fixed it. Maybe something weird about the headphone jack not disconnecting properly.

I've noticed that my desktop G5 tends to make more noise when I'm testing the game, and I think it's actually the graphics card fan rather than the hard drive.

If it is the hard drive, maybe it's because error messages are being spewed into the console. Would you mind running the game again to see if there's anything appearing in the console.log and system.log?
Hmmm. well the graphics fan usually does come on when I play games, but this was definitely not the graphics fan. I don't see how it could have been a fan at all, unless there is something sticking in the fan that the blades hit each time they pass by. But I don't think that is the case, as it only happens with this game and a few others posted on this board for testing.

I checked the console and system logs and it doesn't write anything to either.

[NCarter]

I only got it the 1st time and not again. I just got similar yesterday with SimCity 4, and replugging and unplugging my headphones fixed it. Maybe something weird about the headphone jack not disconnecting properly.
In that case, it's probably just a defective headphone socket. I have a similar problem with my stereo: when I plug in the headphones, I sometimes get muted or distorted sound; when I unplug them, sometimes the sound cuts out altogether. It can also stop working at random and stay off until I poke the socket with the plug. I think there's a little switch in the socket which is used to detect whether a plug is present, and it gets broken quite easily. :(

I checked the console and system logs and it doesn't write anything to either.
If you have time, would you mind running the game in window mode? Edit the preferences file and flip the appropriate setting before starting the game. If there's a problem, you'll probably see OpenGL error messages appear in the debugging window. Ignoring the stuff about loading models, could you give me a summary of what it says and tell me if it just gives one error message, or if it scrolls right off the top of the window? Thanks. :)

BTW, the debugging window doesn't support cut-and-paste or scrolling because I'm not handling its events properly (it's a SIOUX window which I'm only using because I can't get access to the system console due to a CodeWarrior bug). You might want to grab some note paper first!

[SOUR-Monkey]

It's quite fun :) I don't like the controls, I'd like the option to invert both axis of movement rather than just the one.

It looks nice though. I noticed a little jumpiness when I ran it at 1280x960 on my 700 Mhz eMac, but it was pretty good otherwise.

[NCarter]

I don't like the controls, I'd like the option to invert both axis of movement rather than just the one.
Really? Why's that? I'm not being critical here, but I'm curious to know what seems wrong about the default controls.

Maybe it'll make more sense when viewed from inside the cockpit. I've added the cockpit view to my development version and it'll appear in the next release - hopefully that will help!

[SOUR-Monkey]

It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's just not what I use. Normally, in a FPS I would use "normal" control where right moves right and up moves up, and in a flight or space sim I tend to use the complete opposite. I can get the vertical axis how I like it, it just feels odd having one inverted and the other not.

It's a personal thing though, I doubt everyone feels that way. I really like the look of it so far though once I've forgotten about the control. And if you could make it possible to stuff asteroid up their exhaust pipes, well... :D

[gatti]

It definitely seems like it's going to be good. I agree with some others that the speed needs to definitely increase.

I was testing on my job's 350mhz blue G3 tower 10.3.5, 512MB RAM
The A and W rotation seemed to spin the world nicely. I'll check on my G4 1.25 during lunch to see if the speed is close in comparison.

I know that you probably already have a nice gameplay direction that you're shooting for, but I just want to share some gameplay ideas that I think will be cool. If the goal of the game is to pick-up stranded miners then have a racingcar-like checkpoint count down system. You are awarded more time upon each miner pick-up, and that total remaining time is what you need to reach the end. Perhaps there can be two thrusts. (1 for slower/more precise maneuvering and another for faster open-space flying. Warp boosts can also be a cool addition but only three per stage or a tank that depletes energy when the button is pressed down.

[NCarter]

It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's just not what I use. Normally, in a FPS I would use "normal" control where right moves right and up moves up, and in a flight or space sim I tend to use the complete opposite. I can get the vertical axis how I like it, it just feels odd having one inverted and the other not.
I sort of see where you're coming from.... ;) I'll add reversal for both axes to the next version.

On the same subject, I added the ability to look around the cockpit to my development version last night, and it occurred to me that there are even more permutations of this problem. For example, you might want to steer with axes reversed but look with them unreversed! It's easy enough to accommodate this, but I end up with a very large number of options in the preferences if I make every possible axis reversible.

What do you think? Should the view controls match the steering controls or should they be different for any reason?

It's a personal thing though, I doubt everyone feels that way. I really like the look of it so far though once I've forgotten about the control. And if you could make it possible to stuff asteroid up their exhaust pipes, well... :D
I hope I have time to put in any kind of offensive ability or tool usage, but I can see that these features are likely to be dropped if time runs out. I'll try my best, though!

It definitely seems like it's going to be good. I agree with some others that the speed needs to definitely increase.
Thanks! It will be faster in the next version. Steering is still slow-ish, but it doesn't feel so wrong when viewed from within the cockpit (in fact, first person view makes everything feel faster and more dangerous!).

If the goal of the game is to pick-up stranded miners then have a racingcar-like checkpoint count down system. You are awarded more time upon each miner pick-up, and that total remaining time is what you need to reach the end.
I don't really want to make the game's objectives overtly 'game-like', but it may end up working like your suggestion anyway. I'm thinking that your co-pilot will give you directions to the nearest populated asteroid, and you'll have to zoom over there to pick up the miners before the enemy battleships arrive and blow them up. The battleships therefore act as a kind of time limit.

Your success will be judged according to the number of lives you save - I don't plan to have bonuses or a score as such.

Perhaps there can be two thrusts. (1 for slower/more precise maneuvering and another for faster open-space flying.
This is interesting! I like the way you don't have to mess about with throttle settings at the moment, but it's a bit lacking in delicacy when you want to dock or land. I might take your advice and add a button which toggles between high and low speeds for this purpose.

Warp boosts can also be a cool addition but only three per stage or a tank that depletes energy when the button is pressed down.
Good idea. Since this is a 'low-tech' game, instead of having a warp speed effect, I'd probably implement it as big auxiliary rockets which get strapped onto your ship!

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions, guys. You're helping a lot! I get to take tomorrow off work so I'll have time to dive into the collision detection - hopefully that'll result in a new release by the weekend or so. :)

[Wrisc]

On the controls side of things, I definitely agree with having a Y-Flipped option (and if you're planning on including an X-Flipped, make sure it's separately selectable from Y). I kept going up when I wanted to go down & down when I wanted to go up... too many years of flight games with the opposite steering makes it hard to adapt.

Looks very promising though, can't wait to see the end result :ninja:

[NCarter]

On the controls side of things, I definitely agree with having a Y-Flipped option...
Check the preferences file! ;)

[NCarter]

I've just released a new version of Rescue, available from my website (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue). Please try it and let me know what you think!

New features in this version:

In-cockpit view. You can also look around the cockpit (see the Read Me file for the new view controls).
Unlimited asteroid field.
X axis flipping. ;)

From discussions on #idevgames it seems that the version requires somewhat more powerful hardware. I'm guessing that a Radeon or equivalent NVidia card and a 400MHz G4 is the minimum reasonable specification. It'll run on slower computers, but you'll probably get 10-20FPS. I'm going to try to improve this for the final version, but for now, try tweaking the preferences file to reduce the detail level a bit.

Optimisation aside, the groundwork for the gameplay is all laid out now (once I re-insert the collision detection code), so the next version should be much more interesting!

[NCarter]

Whoops... looks like I updated everything on my website except the download link. If you were wondering why the new version looks exactly the same as the old version, please try again! :p

[SOUR-Monkey]

Aah, I'm glad there was a reason for it :P School calls and I must dash, but I'll give it a try this afternoon.

[SOUR-Monkey]

Sorry I took so long to get around to it, but I've done it at last.

I must say, that is very fun :) I like the added speed, it makes it seem a lot more fun to fly. The controls are ok as well, although I think you should add a visual display to show exactly how much you are turning in each direction so that it's easier to straighten out of turns.

The framerate wasn't very good though. I was only getting about 18 FPS most of the time, and this is on a 700 Mhz eMac, 640 MB RAM and a GF2MX card. I don't know how accurate this is though, as my computer is running very slowly at the moment.

Anyway, I'm liking the look of this game. Landing on asteroids will be fun :)

[NCarter]

The controls are ok as well, although I think you should add a visual display to show exactly how much you are turning in each direction so that it's easier to straighten out of turns.
In theory, that's what the space dust is for, but maybe it isn't visible enough to work for that purpose. I might deal with this by putting a little motion vector readout in the cockpit (I don't really want to use a HUD to display this information).

Incidentally, I've noticed from my version with collision detection that the simplest way to avoid a collision is to apply a short burst of retro thrust. That's usually all you need to either stop short of the obstruction or slip by it.

The framerate wasn't very good though. I was only getting about 18 FPS most of the time, and this is on a 700 Mhz eMac, 640 MB RAM and a GF2MX card. I don't know how accurate this is though, as my computer is running very slowly at the moment.
Indeed, speed has been a problem. If you've been reading the blog, you may have noticed that I've just significantly improved the speed situation (it's now less dependent upon processor speed). I've put together a new version which is identical to the last but with the speed increased - could you tell me if this improves things for you?

The new version is available from my website (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue), as usual.

[SOUR-Monkey]

I don't think space dust will do the trick at all. I can easily see what direction I'm flying in and how fast I'm turning, but not how much I have turned with the mouse. While I can keep moving the mouse until I stop turning, it's a little difficult because often I end up over-compensating and spinning the other direction because I can't tell how much turn I've already compensated for.

I can't download your updated version, as the link on your page still points to d1. I got d2 last night by simply replacing the 1 with a 2 in the link, but that hasn't worked this time. Is it still under d2?

[NCarter]

I don't think space dust will do the trick at all. I can easily see what direction I'm flying in and how fast I'm turning, but not how much I have turned with the mouse. While I can keep moving the mouse until I stop turning, it's a little difficult because often I end up over-compensating and spinning the other direction because I can't tell how much turn I've already compensated for.
Oh, I get it. I'll add a mouse offset indicator and a dead-zone for the mouse as soon as possible, in that case.

I can't download your updated version, as the link on your page still points to d1. I got d2 last night by simply replacing the 1 with a 2 in the link, but that hasn't worked this time. Is it still under d2?
No, it's d3 now. You probably just need to clear your browser cache. This (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/files/rescue_100d3.dmg.zip) is a direct link.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the latest version is really, really nice. It's a blast to play, and the graphics look very promising. Oh, by the way, is there a possibility of you implementing full-screen anti-aliasing? That'd be really great!

Did I notice the exhaust nozzels on the back of the ship moving when I was turning. That's really cool.

—Andrew

[NCarter]

Yeah, the latest version is really, really nice. It's a blast to play, and the graphics look very promising.
Thanks! My development version looks somewhat better because it's now mostly textured and some of the models have been redesigned to be more detailed. Hopefully there will be a new version in about a week including these things as well as actual gameplay!

Oh, by the way, is there a possibility of you implementing full-screen anti-aliasing? That'd be really great!
I've never seen the point of FSAA myself... I'd rather just turn the resolution up! Still, I believe it's easy to add so I'll look into it if I have time.

Did I notice the exhaust nozzels on the back of the ship moving when I was turning. That's really cool.
Er... I didn't program the nozzles to move around. Either you're imagining it or something really weird is happening. ;)

[Andrew]

Er... I didn't program the nozzles to move around. Either you're imagining it or something really weird is happening.
Okay, then it's a figment of my imagination :D

I've never seen the point of FSAA myself... I'd rather just turn the resolution up! Still, I believe it's easy to add so I'll look into it if I have time.

I always thought FSAA was really cool: it makes those horrible jagged edges all soft and nice. To me, it'd be a whole lot better than turning the resolution up... but that's just me.

By the way, I made a in-cockpit sound for the game. It's nothing spectacular, and you don't have to use it, but it's kinda neat, anyway: http://www.developericons.com/in_cockpit.wav

[NCarter]

Sorry, Andrew, slow response as usual.... I've been busy coding.

I always thought FSAA was really cool: it makes those horrible jagged edges all soft and nice. To me, it'd be a whole lot better than turning the resolution up... but that's just me.
For some reason, I can't get FSAA to work on my machine. It might be a problem with my graphic card drivers or something... I'll have to investigate further to figure it out. I may put options to control FSAA into the preferences file anyway, so others can let me know if it works for them.

By the way, I made a in-cockpit sound for the game. It's nothing spectacular, and you don't have to use it, but it's kinda neat, anyway: http://www.developericons.com/in_cockpit.wav
Hey, that's pretty good! I don't know quite how it would fit in at the moment because there will be background music in the finished game, and I suspect it would drown out this fairly quiet sound effect, but I'm keeping a copy of it anyway in case I can find a home for it. Thanks!

A little progress report for those who are interested: I now have reasonably good collision detection, buildings on asteroids and the first part of level progression. Many of the objects are now textured or in progress, so it's starting to look much more polished now. The next job is to add the docking feature and a means of escaping into hyperspace (or something) at the end of each level. Beyond that, I want to add some kind of threat to replace the unlikely-to-appear alien battleships... maybe I'll just throw fireballs at the player from a nearby moon.

If I'm lucky, I might even have time to add some kind of front end menu and other such niceties. If not, this game will have zero polish outside of the gameplay! We'll have to see how it turns out....

[Andrew]

For some reason, I can't get FSAA to work on my machine. It might be a problem with my graphic card drivers or something... I'll have to investigate further to figure it out. I may put options to control FSAA into the preferences file anyway, so others can let me know if it works for them.

I'd blame your graphics card... I'm not sure if the old graphics cards do FSAA. By the way... FSAA sounds like some sort of aeronautics associasion, something like "Falcon Squadron Aviation Association" or something like that :p

Hey, that's pretty good! I don't know quite how it would fit in at the moment because there will be background music in the finished game, and I suspect it would drown out this fairly quiet sound effect, but I'm keeping a copy of it anyway in case I can find a home for it. Thanks!

Thanks, glad you liked it.

By the way, I was screwing around in Illustrator the other day, and I came up with this:
http://www.developericons.com/andrewsmith/rescuelogo.gif

I know the name isn't final, but I had fun doing it anyway :p

As you can see, I have WAY to much time on my hands ;)

Contact me if you need some art or textures or anything. I'd love to help.

—Andrew

[NCarter]

I'd blame your graphics card... I'm not sure if the old graphics cards do FSAA.
I discovered the other day that this is actually a bug in SDL 1.2.7. Version 1.2.8 apparently fixes it, but hasn't been released in a final form yet, so I'll just have to live with it not working for the moment. Again, I'll try to add a preference to enable it anyway because it apparently works on some graphics cards.

By the way, I was screwing around in Illustrator the other day, and I came up with this:
http://www.developericons.com/andrewsmith/rescuelogo.gif

I know the name isn't final, but I had fun doing it anyway :p

As you can see, I have WAY to much time on my hands ;)
Nice! I still have to do some title graphics, so if I can see a way to use this (or make something based upon it), I'll do so. Thanks!

Contact me if you need some art or textures or anything. I'd love to help.
We're really into the final stretch before the contest deadline now, so I'm reluctant to bring anyone else on board because it'll only confuse the rest of us who are working on the game! Thanks for offering anyway... maybe you'll be able to help out after the contest. :)

Hopefully there will be a new version either later today or tomorrow, or at any rate before the contest deadline, as a means of getting some last minute feedback. I still have to complete the gameplay, but the next version will at least have an aspect of rescuing asteroid miners. Just need to add a threat (distant alien ships with blazing guns) and some polish (title screen, level end screen, game over screen) and I'm done. Blimey, that's a lot of things to do...!

[NCarter]

Whoops, skipped a few version numbers! ;)

You can download the latest version of Rescue from my website (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue). This version has... well, loads of new stuff. Most notably:

Textures.
Collision detection.
Docking and rescuing miners!
Some hint of gameplay and level progression.
Things to be aware of:

The mouse controls are pretty bad at the moment. I may remove them altogether. For now I recommend only using the cursor keys - it's a lot easier that way!

You might find it difficult to understand the radar, docking procedure and hyperspace procedure if you don't read the instructions.

Please read the enclosed warning about saving your work before running the game... I had a nasty crash on a particular Mac, although I haven't seen it reproduced on any similar machines yet. Should be safe to use, but make sure you're covered just in case....

Still lots to do... better get back to work! :wacko:

[Andrew]

This is really, really, really good, Neil. Congrats! It's a little hard to board the asteroids, but I figured it out. The textures helped a ton, and the re-modeling of the ship was a good improvement, too.
I experienced an unexpected quit (on this dual G4 500 MHz). When I was just coming out of hyperspace, I pressed space by accident.

Oh yeah, and it wouldn't hurt to incorperate some radar componets into the main in-cockpit veiw of the ship, i.e. have a few crosshairs and such in the glass of the cockpit, telling you what to do and where stuff is. I found myself watching the radar, instead of looking out for massive asteroids...

I think this game could double as some sort of stress-reliever... it's a blast to gun the engines at full speed and just randomly bounce off asteroids :D

—Andrew

[SOUR-Monkey]

I'm not sure if I've just missed something blindingly obvious or not, but I can't find the new version on your website Neil. The download link still points to version 100d3, which has no textures or collision detection etc.

I have tried reloading the page, but nothing changes.

[NCarter]

This is really, really, really good, Neil. Congrats! It's a little hard to board the asteroids, but I figured it out. The textures helped a ton, and the re-modeling of the ship was a good improvement, too.
I experienced an unexpected quit (on this dual G4 500 MHz). When I was just coming out of hyperspace, I pressed space by accident.
That's odd, I'll look into that. Thanks for the compliments!

Oh yeah, and it wouldn't hurt to incorperate some radar componets into the main in-cockpit veiw of the ship, i.e. have a few crosshairs and such in the glass of the cockpit, telling you what to do and where stuff is. I found myself watching the radar, instead of looking out for massive asteroids...
I know what you mean - I find it a little tricky myself - but that's an intentional part of the design. You have to keep your eyes on several things inside the cockpit as well as what's going on outside the ship. If you keep hitting things, try flying a bit slower, or at least watch out for big black things blotting out the stars in front of you!

I think this game could double as some sort of stress-reliever... it's a blast to gun the engines at full speed and just randomly bounce off asteroids :D
Enjoy that feeling while you can... the next version will feature asteroid-impact-related damage and destruction!

I'm not sure if I've just missed something blindingly obvious or not, but I can't find the new version on your website Neil. The download link still points to version 100d3, which has no textures or collision detection etc.

I have tried reloading the page, but nothing changes.
It's definitely there, and it's linked on the page.... Try clearing Safari's cache (Safari->Empty Cache… on the menu). If you're using some kind of caching proxy, try bypassing it or get the admin to fix it.

Failing that, here's a direct link (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/files/rescue_100d7.dmg.zip).

[Andrew]

By accident, I did the "spacebar when just coming out of hyperspace" thing, and it crashed, again. Oh yeah, and some inhabited asteroids I found were a little messed-up: i.e., some of the towers colided with the boarding structure.
I think I fixed your asteroid texture, too—it doesn't seem to have that gargantuan seam running through it, although I see a few seams, but it looks much better... By the way, is a planet atmosphere in the works? I feel sorry for that poor gas giant—no atmosphere! :)

I know what you mean - I find it a little tricky myself - but that's an intentional part of the design. You have to keep your eyes on several things inside the cockpit as well as what's going on outside the ship. If you keep hitting things, try flying a bit slower, or at least watch out for big black things blotting out the stars in front of you!

Ahh, oh well. I'm not bumping into asteroids because of it... but it is kind of weird to be watching the radar, and have the ol' peripheral vision taking over elsewhere ;)

That said, this game rocks!

—Andrew

[JustinFic]

I love the look and feel of this game! There's probably not much more time for gameplay suggestions but it would be sweet if the instruments in the cockpit started going on the fritz when your ship becomes damaged. Would add to the whole old-mining-rig theme :)

It took me awhile to get used to flying the ship. Will there be some sort of in-game tutorial on the flight controls and landing procedure? Or at least a few arrows on the first level showing where to dock and the ship orientation for doing so?

I can't wait to try it with some aliens!

[MarkJ]

NCarter, this game looks really good in third person mode. If I can suggest some senseless eye candy, some particle effect smoke when you hit thrusters to rotate and move would be very cool.

[NCarter]

By accident, I did the "spacebar when just coming out of hyperspace" thing, and it crashed, again.
Thanks, I've now tracked down that bug and fixed it!

Oh yeah, and some inhabited asteroids I found were a little messed-up: i.e., some of the towers colided with the boarding structure.
I think I've mostly fixed that too. You might still see some overlapping buildings, but it should be acceptably minimal now. Previously it was possible for an antenna to end up right in the middle of the docking platform....

I think I fixed your asteroid texture, too—it doesn't seem to have that gargantuan seam running through it, although I see a few seams, but it looks much better...
Eh? You think you fixed it? :blink: I think Brian, who's been working on the textures, fixed it....

By the way, is a planet atmosphere in the works? I feel sorry for that poor gas giant—no atmosphere!
It's a gas giant. It is an atmosphere! ;) I might try to get some Jupiter-style storms into the texture, though.

I love the look and feel of this game! There's probably not much more time for gameplay suggestions but it would be sweet if the instruments in the cockpit started going on the fritz when your ship becomes damaged. Would add to the whole old-mining-rig theme
That's already part of the plan - I just need to code it! Thanks for reminding me, though. :)

It took me awhile to get used to flying the ship. Will there be some sort of in-game tutorial on the flight controls and landing procedure? Or at least a few arrows on the first level showing where to dock and the ship orientation for doing so?
I've made docking a bit easier for the final version. You still have to be more or less centred over the platform, but it's less fussy about your ship's orientation.

I hope I'll have time to add some ingame instructions for the first level... I'm working towards that.

NCarter, this game looks really good in third person mode.
Thanks! I was going to remove the third person view, but I think I'll leave it in for the contest version because it's quite nice to have an alternative way to play the game. After the contest it'll be important that you can't cheat by looking in directions that should be blocked by your ship, but that doesn't matter for now.

If I can suggest some senseless eye candy, some particle effect smoke when you hit thrusters to rotate and move would be very cool.
Definitely! I just need time to program it... I'll try to fit that in.

Thanks to all of you for your feedback!

[Andrew]

Eh? You think you fixed it? I think Brian, who's been working on the textures, fixed it....
What I meant was this:
I noticed a big seam running along the edges of the asteroids, so said to myself, "Self: I think the asteroid texture isn't tileable." So a little while later, I rummaged through the ol' package contents, found the asteroid texture, applied some photoshop skills, and that seemed to irradicate the huge seam... although, I can't tell much of a difference now. I'll have to fool with it a little more... for myself, that is. Or maybe the guy who's doing the textures has already fixed it; I don't know.

[Peter]

Gave it a decent run through this AM. I locked up hard once (first try) but after that I was able to play 4 levels without a glitch. Too much freedom of movement for my old reflexes but it got easier with each level and was fun!

I can imagine a good pilot slewing around the asteroid belts looking for a potential hyperspace slot while being chased by a bad guy :^)

[aarku]

Make sure you all are using keyboard control instead of mouse control. Mouse control is incredibly hard to use! Use WASD and arrow (cursor) keys.

I just want to make sure the reflexes thing isn't due to using the mouse. It's impossible with the mouse! (I think)

Keyboard control is smoooooth

-Jon

[NCarter]

I noticed a big seam running along the edges of the asteroids, so said to myself, "Self: I think the asteroid texture isn't tileable." So a little while later, I rummaged through the ol' package contents, found the asteroid texture, applied some photoshop skills, and that seemed to irradicate the huge seam... although, I can't tell much of a difference now. I'll have to fool with it a little more... for myself, that is.
Ah, I see! Would you care to send me a copy of the modified texture so I can see if it helps? (You've got my email address, right?)

Incidentally, if you're seeing seams on asteroids, it's not simply because the texture doesn't tile. Rather, it's due to the way the texture is mapped onto the asteroid geometry. Texture mapping a roughly spheroidal object so that there are no seams, pinches or stretches anywhere is topologically impossible with a single 2D texture map. With this in mind, Brian and myself decided to segment the geometry and UV map parts of it independently, hopefully such that the seams are at least less pronounced.

At any rate, I'm happy with the results! :)

Gave it a decent run through this AM. I locked up hard once (first try) but after that I was able to play 4 levels without a glitch. Too much freedom of movement for my old reflexes but it got easier with each level and was fun!
I'm pleased that you're enjoying it! :)

Could you describe what happened when you locked up? Did it lock up the whole machine so severely that you had to restart it? Did garbage appear on the screen or anything like that? Also, what kind of Mac and graphics card are you using?

I can imagine a good pilot slewing around the asteroid belts looking for a potential hyperspace slot while being chased by a bad guy :^)
This is something I'm working towards. The contest version will probably be limited to dodging fire from distant enemies rather than evading direct attacks from fighters, but that will hopefully still be fun!

Make sure you all are using keyboard control instead of mouse control. Mouse control is incredibly hard to use! Use WASD and arrow (cursor) keys.

I just want to make sure the reflexes thing isn't due to using the mouse. It's impossible with the mouse! (I think)

Keyboard control is smoooooth
Thanks for highlighting that, Jon. I can fly and even dock with the mouse, but it's amazingly hard work! In fact, since mouse control is so diabolical at the moment I've decided to remove it from the contest version altogether. The next version will require you to use the cursor keys. I'll try to add nicer mouse controls after the contest.

A little status report:

I've just added 'overlays', which are extra graphics rendered over the top of the usual display. This allows me to add things like pause mode and the title screen graphics over the ingame visuals. Looks pretty good, and it also means that I've fulfilled the entry requirement of mentioning uDevGames on the title screen.

Next thing is the use the same feature to add an end of level status display.

[phydeaux]

I always really like the graphics style of your games.

After playing around with this game, I have to admit that even after reading the instructions I had no idea what I was supposed to do in the game. Something about docking with something? More in-game clues as to what you're supposed to do would help if you have time for it. It could be that I'm just dumb and most people are actually able to figure it out fairly easily.

There is nothing inherently wrong with mouse controls, and I think you could keep mouse controls if you have a sort of BRAKE mode for angular velocity in addition to your linear velocity BRAKE mode. This could be accomplished if you have some call to move the cursor around. I believe this is what's done in your run of the mill 3d space game, though I have never been a big fan of them, though I can understand the success of the genre- the dogfight-style gameplay made popular by XWing/TieFighter and then later by Descent Freespace is pretty well-refined, and a lot of my friends really got into them.

Edit for political correctness.

[Andrew]

A few suggestions...

• Engine exhaust (I made a little composite in photoshop: http://www.developericons.com/thrust.jpg )

By the way, does anyone know how to make an image display itself in the forum post? I put the IMG tags in there and everything. Weird.

• Some sort of media on the radar, that point to things that aren't currently on the radar (i.e., when the blips for the inhabited asteroids leave the radar, yellow triangles show up on the edge of the radar, pointing in the direction of the asteroids.)

• Different asteroid types/more asteroid colliding noises, to give you a variety

• Collision marks on asteroids (a small texture that places itself on the point where you hit an asteroid, providing you hit one).

• Dust that comes up when you hit an asteroid.

• The ability to land on any good-sized asteroid, possibly to get health or energy or something of that sort.

• Lens flair for the sun.


By the way, Rescue runs impeccably on one of the new iMac G5s (I was at the Apple store last night.) Poor neil... there aren't any Apple stores in London... however, I think they're going to be building one.

[NCarter]

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the contest version of Rescue (1.0.0d8) has now been uploaded. Please pick it up from my website (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue) and tell me what you think! [Direct link (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/files/rescue_100d8.dmg.zip), 8.2MB]

New features include timed levels, amazing music from Mikko Tarmia and further updates to the excellent textures from Brian Smith. Many thanks to my team mates for working above and beyond the call of duty!

I'll answer recent comments shortly, but for now, I'm going to take a bit of a break....

Good luck to all the other contestants! :wow:

[JustinFic]

Very very very cool :wow:

The overall style just flat out rules, and the music is sweet icing.

Docking is still a little frustrating for me but after playing it this long that's probably more of a problem with the player ;)

[NCarter]

I've just uploaded a new version due to an oversight in the packaging.... At the same time, I fixed a couple of bugs. It should no longer crash when you explode on slower computers, and it clears your overall score before starting a new game. The new version still has 1.0.0d8 on the archive name, so the direct link (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/files/rescue_100d8.dmg.zip) still works.

I always really like the graphics style of your games.
Thank you. :)

After playing around with this game, I have to admit that even after reading the instructions I had no idea what I was supposed to do in the game. Something about docking with something? More in-game clues as to what you're supposed to do would help if you have time for it. It could be that I'm just dumb and most people are actually able to figure it out fairly easily.
I'll see if I can put together some decent illustrated instructions soon. Ingame instructions are out of the question at the moment... I'm too tired to do much more than fix bugs.

To summarise the objective of the game:

Look for yellow dots on the radar. If you can't see any, turn around until you can.
Put the dot in the middle of the radar and fly forwards until a red cross appears; turn and fly towards that. You should now be able to see something which looks like an office building with a big flat platform on top.
Fly around to the top of it, then move forward until you're nearly touching the platform. Manoeuvre so the circle is in the cross on the radar, and rotate until your cockpit is roughly halfway between the centre of the platform and its edge. Press space to dock, then wait for everyone to get on board (watch the counter in the centre of the screen). Press space again to leave.
Repeat until you've visited all the yellow dots on your radar.
Fly towards one of the green dots on the radar... one at either end is best. You'll see an antenna on an asteroid. Look down the row of antennae, press F to go into free flight mode, then accelerate to full speed, being careful to not hit the antennae or any asteroids! You'll jump into hyperspace and automatically visit your mothership before proceeding to the next level.

Does that help? As I said, I'll definitely try to make things more visual in the instructions so that you can tell what the landing platform is going to look like and so on.

There is nothing inherently wrong with mouse controls, and I think you could keep mouse controls if you have a sort of BRAKE mode for angular velocity in addition to your linear velocity BRAKE mode. This could be accomplished if you have some call to move the cursor around.
The specific problem with Rescue is that the ship turns quite slowly, so using the mouse for relative movement requires the player to crank the mouse around a lot. On the other hand, absolute mouse movement (which was how I was doing it before I removed it) tends to cause the ship to swim around in a confusing way. I'm sure I can fix the latter; I just need time to refine it.

Andrew and I discussed some of his points elsewhere, but for the benefit of everyone else:
• Engine exhaust
Coming soon! I'm going to use the explosion particle effect mechanism to generate exhaust jets.

• Some sort of media on the radar, that point to things that aren't currently on the radar (i.e., when the blips for the inhabited asteroids leave the radar, yellow triangles show up on the edge of the radar, pointing in the direction of the asteroids.)
It's intentional that you can't see things which are behind you - it's supposed to be a fairly low tech forward looking radar receiver. I might enhance it a little to show you more clearly which things are closer so that it's easier to know where to go next.

• Different asteroid types/more asteroid colliding noises, to give you a variety
Done. :)

• Collision marks on asteroids (a small texture that places itself on the point where you hit an asteroid, providing you hit one).

• Dust that comes up when you hit an asteroid.
Collision marks would be a bit difficult because I'd have to radically overhaul the model code. I may look into this in the future, though. Dust is much easier though... in fact, I had a prototype of collision dust working a few days ago. I'll put that on my to-do list.

• The ability to land on any good-sized asteroid, possibly to get health or energy or something of that sort.
Yeah, that was the original intention. It's not going to happen any time soon, but I'd like to change to a better/proper physics system like ODE so that I can handle true interactions between the spaceship and arbitrary shaped asteroids.

• Lens flair for the sun.
Possibly. This kind of thing is eye candy beyond what I can be bothered to program! It's low on my list of priorities.

Very very very cool :wow:

The overall style just flat out rules, and the music is sweet icing.

Docking is still a little frustrating for me but after playing it this long that's probably more of a problem with the player ;)
Thanks, Justin!

Docking is one of those things that takes a little practice, but it's easy once you've got the hang of it. Not crashing into big bits of rock at high speed is difficult. ;) See above for more docking instructions.

[Shadowoftheeli]

Great game, cannot wait for the final release. One of the best games I have ever played. Really cool.
The game would be perfect if you would change the turn rate of the asteroids. They rotate two fast. Slow it down a little.
Cannot wait for the engine lights, the battleships and the mining tools.
Perhaps you could add a safe menu or you could make additional objectives. You have to destroy a captured mining base or a supply depot of the enemy. Or destroy a enemy convoy or battleship.
Or to evacuate a disabled allied ship.
Perhaps you could add some battles between allies and enemys.

[NCarter]

Great game, cannot wait for the final release. One of the best games I have ever played. Really cool.
The game would be perfect if you would change the turn rate of the asteroids. They rotate two fast. Slow it down a little.
Thanks, that's very encouraging! I'll take a look at slowing the asteroids. I quite like it like that, but maybe it'd be good to save wildly spinning asteroids for situations where something has acted upon them (an explosion, for example).

Cannot wait for the engine lights, the battleships and the mining tools.
Perhaps you could add a safe menu or you could make additional objectives. You have to destroy a captured mining base or a supply depot of the enemy. Or destroy a enemy convoy or battleship.
Or to evacuate a disabled allied ship.
Perhaps you could add some battles between allies and enemys.
There are some great ideas there! Most of those features won't make it into the contest version because there simply isn't time to add such complex extra. However, I'll try to add them after the contest.

What do you mean by a 'safe menu', by the way?

[Shadowoftheeli]

I just want to improve a very good game. Voted for it today !
I read you search for a better name. I think what ever your choose, it should have "Infinity" in the name. Because that is the feeling which you get when you play this game in a dark room and turned the music on.

safe menu --- sorry I wanted to say "save menu"
If you add different missions like

- rescue mining personal in a specific time (standart)
- rescue mining personal and avoid being detected by the enemy for your own good
- destory a enemy ship with your mining equipment
- destroy enemy mining asteroids
- rescue surviving personal from a disabled allied ship

and so on you should give the player also the ability to safe his games between the missions.

And please do NOT add a High Score. This would not fit to the game. I think this is no game which you could play in your breaks at work.

[NCarter]

I've just put up a new version (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue) (uDevGames download page (http://www.udevgames.com/downloads/?dlid=24)). I've included some better instructions with illustrations. The time limit is now more generous on earlier levels and less so on later ones (rather than the other way round!). Also, the textures and various cosmetic details have been refined.

I just want to improve a very good game. Voted for it today !
I read you search for a better name. I think what ever your choose, it should have "Infinity" in the name. Because that is the feeling which you get when you play this game in a dark room and turned the music on.
Interesting.... "Rescue Infinity!" Maybe. Actually, I nearly ended up calling it "Exploding Beta Rescue" at one point. I'm not joking. :)

safe menu --- sorry I wanted to say "save menu"
If you add different missions like

- rescue mining personal in a specific time (standart)
- rescue mining personal and avoid being detected by the enemy for your own good
- destory a enemy ship with your mining equipment
- destroy enemy mining asteroids
- rescue surviving personal from a disabled allied ship

and so on you should give the player also the ability to safe his games between the missions.
I see. Yes, I agree that there should be save points in the final game.

And please do NOT add a High Score. This would not fit to the game. I think this is no game which you could play in your breaks at work.
Indeed. Actually, I wanted to measure the player's success in terms of the number of lives they save versus the ones they lose. The original design was closer to an RPG than an arcade game, so celebrating high scores wouldn't really make sense.

[aarku]

Hey, I noticed that the ship doesn't really touch the docking platform when you're docked.

I found that out by going into 3rd person view (2) and holding control and moving around the camera. It seems to be about 0.5 game meters above the docking platform.

:-)

-Jon

[NCarter]

Hey, I noticed that the ship doesn't really touch the docking platform when you're docked.

I found that out by going into 3rd person view (2) and holding control and moving around the camera. It seems to be about 0.5 game meters above the docking platform.
Quite right. Actually, it's more like three or four meters away - the ship is quite large!

This is just a consequence of the cheap collision detection system I made, and it's quite difficult to fix without doing an ugly hack which I'd rather avoid at the moment. I'll try to fix that in some future version by switching to a proper physics system such as ODE.

[Andrew]

What about Rescue: Infinity (with a colon inbetween the two words)?. Hmm. It bears a striking resemblance to "Marathon: Infinity" :/

[Shadowoftheeli]

I thought of "Rescue: Infinity" or "Rescue in Infinty" or "Infinity: Rescue Attempt".

[murgh]

congrats on a very smooth and atmospheric gaming experience. wanted to mention I got seduced and gave it an according vote on uDevgames. may it do well there :blink:

cool to see that this will keep growing in complexity. the stage and flying model is so nice it has the potential to carry a deep game.

at first I thought flying and docking was quite difficult, but the technique came to me, and cruised with relative ease through the next five stages.. at this point I wished there had been a save feature.. ;)

looking forward to see future progress.

[NCarter]

For those who are interested, the source code (http://www.nether.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nether/bad_mac_code.html#rescue) for Rescue 1.0.0d10 is now available. Don't get too excited that the version number has increased, it only fixes a few minor bugs! I'll update the binary in a few days.

At the moment there's only a CodeWarrior 8 project (and exported XML version) in the archive, but I plan to add an Xcode project to make it more accessible to the rest of the community. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you want to discuss the source, or if you're going to do something interesting with it!

Andrew and Shadowoftheeli, thanks for the naming suggestions. Thinking about it, once I get around to developing the game further and adding a proper ingame storyline, it'll become more obvious what the game should be called. For example, there may be place names in the story (the planet needs a name, as will the various characters and factions in the game) which will help me to make a decision. I'll bear your suggestions in mind, though.

congrats on a very smooth and atmospheric gaming experience. wanted to mention I got seduced and gave it an according vote on uDevgames. may it do well there :blink:
Thanks very much!

cool to see that this will keep growing in complexity. the stage and flying model is so nice it has the potential to carry a deep game.
There are still a lot of things I want to do with this game, so expect it to gradually develop into a much more complex game over the next few months.

at first I thought flying and docking was quite difficult, but the technique came to me, and cruised with relative ease through the next five stages.. at this point I wished there had been a save feature.. ;)
Just think of it as a challenge for now! ;) You should be able to get up to about level 8 or 9 before it becomes unreasonably difficult....

[Shadowoftheeli]

I really like to write background storys. :rolleyes: What do you think of this ? Because there are so many possiblitys to name alien races, I did not wrote any name.

Since the year 2113 humanity has traveled between the stars. We created a interstellar goverment in the western spiral arm of the galaxy. The invention of the hyperdrive propulsion system 40 years ago started the first great expansion. Colony ships reached planets far away, stations and outposts where constructed, a new age had begun.
Then, two years ago a freighter encountered an alien vessel near Spica. The first contact with the (Placeholder) was friendly and succesfull. The (Placeholder), a honorfull insect like species who controlled a empire equal to our own, had developed a collective society without crime, poverty or greed. Our relations with them were peacefull and productive. We traded goods, technology and other information. But five months ago everthing changed.
A human terrorist group, called Terran Isiolanist Force, destroyed a group of (Placeholder) colony transports, using stolen earth warships. Over thousend (Placeholder) died.
Because of their collective society, not one (Placeholder) understood that the greater part of mankind had not been involved in this attack, that the attackers were criminals. They accused our goverment of a planned invasion of their space.
And they declared war. Every peace proposal was rejected, ambassadors send to their space were killed. During the first major attack in the Alpha Centauri system we lost over nineteen battleships. The war rages still today. We have the chance to win, our fleet is now preparing to attack their homeworld. The (Placeholder) fleet prepares for defense.
Yesterday a small group of enemy ships entered the Playos system and initiated a counter attack. The Playos system is uninhabited but it still has a strategic value to us. The second planet, a gas giant, has an asteroid belt. In this belt, over one hundred small mining stations and some other facilitys produce parts for our shipyard in the close Chentok system.
Most of our ships have joined our invasion force, so only a few units are able to help. If the fleet seperates the (Placeholder) would have enough ships to succesfully defend their homeworld.
Because of the situation the military needs every vessel.
You worked as a mining ship pilot until yesterday. Now you are a military pilot flying into a warzone but still sitting in your old but trusty ship.
Good luck, pilot.


So, what is your opinion ?

[murgh]

my opinion? :wacko:
I like the elements, being duped into a war with an enlightened species that can't fathom humans don't act as one. it's a nice catch22. to me, that story loses a little charm when it culminates in Earth invading the insect homeworld, and not the oposite. if it is they who want to eradicate us (because, morally, none of the proven thoroughly evil Earth vermin should be allowed to live), all hands are needed to defend. because noone knows where they'll strike next, all our distant mining colonies are at risk, and there is no story-inherent limit to the game's end.
just my thoughts on a good read.

anyway, just dropped in to throw a couple of name-suggestions into the hat.
how about SpaceEvac or BeltEvac or Asteroid ERU (that's Emergency Rescue Unit)

[Shadowoftheeli]

Hey that is a lot better. I just focused on the "why" of a war. Your one sounds a lot more dangerous, it introduces a player to the game much better.
Write a new version and wait until Neil says something about it.

[NCarter]

Shadowoftheeli and murgh, thanks for that! That's a nice bit of writing, Shadowoftheeli!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring you... I'm just busy writing my postmortem. I'll give a proper response (and a rundown of how I imagined the storyline to be) once I've got that out the way.

[Shadowoftheeli]

No one here can wait for the complete game ;)

[murgh]

*sniff* no..

Mr.Carter, could you share with us your plans on how you see this year's developments? it'd be very sad if you went off to do other projects (or worse, embarked on a year-long walkabout), leaving this superpromising game at this stage.. :blink:

[lightbringer]

So uh, I was just chatting to Neil in the forums (we're best friends so we talk about everything together, programming, teaching, boys, etc) and he said something like the following (this is a loose quote), "ARG! THE PEOPLE ON THE FORUMS THAT KEEP ASKING FOR ME TO UPDATE MY GAME BOTHER ME TO NO END. THEY SHOULD MAKE THEIR OWN GAMES, THEY'RE LOSERS AND I'M STARTING TO HATE THEM ALL. GET A LIFE". I decided to type what he said in CAPS because he told me as he wrote this he was screaming this out loud (we all know Neil has issues, give the guy a break.). I think the point he was trying to make was that these games are an act of love for him, he does his best to find time to work on and update his labors of love. He can't say when they'll be an update and sometimes reading one or two tiny posts sets him off, one because he's a psycho, and two because he'd prefer suggestions and positive reinforcement as opposed to the psychological idiocy that he reads.

So for all of you I'll ask Neil directly: When will you update Rescue? Maybe you should quit your job to work on it since it really rocks and you rock. Now please mention my name in the credits for no reason, I just love your game that much.

[murgh]

man, that feels miscomprehended. I added a post to a thread asleep for nearly a month with no other intent than to represent the opinion that this developer has done exceptional work, hoping only something positive would be taken from that. whatever reasons warrant listing the moron's questions, it wasn't very obviously the current climate, but it is now.
at any rate I sure wouldn't want to get outed and coined a psycho by my "best friend".

[ThemsAllTook]

One thing I've learned after a while here is not to take lightbringer too seriously. His sense of humor is rather, uh, unique...

- Alex Diener

[NCarter]

Ignoring for a moment that slightly frightening insight into lightbringer's rich fantasy life, some of what he's saying more or less reflects how I feel. The fact is that I have limited time and resources to work on my games and other creative projects, and these things have to compete with real life obligations.

I don't resent that people tell me that they enjoy my games and would like to see them finished, but it doesn't make the job of finishing them any easier. In fact, it sometimes has the opposite effect because it's kind of depressing to know that I can't bring these projects to fruition more quickly. On the other hand, it's nice to know that people care about what I'm doing.

So, the bottom line is that I'm doing the best I can to work on Rescue (and my other games), but you can expect it to be quite a while before new things appear. Month long pauses are entirely likely, and I wouldn't expect anything new to appear for a few months. When there's something new to see, I will release it as soon as possible!

At any rate, here's an update of where I am at the moment on my various game projects:

With Rescue, I'm currently experimenting with the ODE physics library with a view to putting it into the game. I have a little box which can tumble and collide with things realistically, and I'm writing some C++ classes to encapsulate ODE in a way which will be more or less compatible with the existing code in Rescue. Note that this will still require a major architectural change in Rescue, so it isn't going to happen overnight.

With Yoink, I've written a level editor and I just need to make some new levels and tile graphics. Just need time to get back onto the project.

Super Phoenix is kind of pending while I figure out what to do about some of the messy code in its deepest, darkest reaches.

I'm also working on a new secret project, which, while it takes time away from the other projects, is teaching me lots of new skills which I will be able to apply to the other games.

That's ignoring all the real life stuff I also need to do... as you can see, I'm pretty busy. It even takes me a significantly long time to do something as simple as write a forum post like this one, because I find writing really tiresome and difficult. That's the main reason that I haven't yet been able to respond properly to Shadowoftheeli's excellent storyline post from earlier: I need to find time to sit down and think about what I want to say.

Well, that probably comes across as a lot of moaning, or possibly as direct criticism of people who have been very generous in their support of my projects. I hope no-one takes it personally. Again, I still appreciate all the feedback and support.

Oh, and one more thing: lightbringer comes from a part of the moon where they're not allowed to have humour; they only get small rations of sarcasm to keep them going. If you have any spare humour you don't need any more, please send it to him. Please. ;)

[Kevin Lindeman]

Moral of the story: Patience.

[murgh]

thanks for sharing on "the state of things" and good luck. the time spent (no less when it comes to postwriting) pays off. ;)

ah, but who has any humour in excess these days..