uDG: MadTak

[Joseph Duchesne]

Hi everyone, this is the official development thread for the uDG entry MadTak, by myself and Lee Bond. Here's a quote from the readme outlining how to play:

"The player spaceships in MadTak offer a unique movement system which combines maneuverability with offensive power. When you start the game you will be in move mode, this is indicated by a green movement arrow: () located above the map. When you are stationary you may switch between this mode and Attack Mode: () by pressing the down key (default: down arrow). The player can rotate left and right using using the keys assigned to left and right (default: arrows). In move mode you can cruise around by holding the up key (default: up arrow) or charge up your power then release it. To charge power let go of the up key and allow the charge indicator (a transparent version of your space ship) to move further away from the player. To use this stored energy press the up key. In attack mode you can only use charged movement. This mode diverts the normal cruise power to your shields making you impervious to damage by collision as well as greatly increasing damage inflicted on the enemies you collide with. You destroy the enemies by smashing into them in attack mode."

System Requirements:
Mac OS 10.3 (10.1/2 and windows versions will be out later on)
1ghz G4 (for smooth game-play)
Some Ram
A 16MB graphics card should work.

And a download link: [see newer link later in the thread]

[phydeaux]

Works fine on my compy. I like the graphics and sound; they look pretty nice.

I think it would be nice to make the charge indicator darker, or have another meter for it, as it's very hard to see, even when I turn the brightness all the way up on my monitor. I haven't figured out a dominant strategy for this game, though it seems like since you have to sit still and charge to do damage, you are mostly a sitting duck. Though I haven't yet figured out how the game is really supposed to be played.
The wall collision is a little hokey sometimes. It's tolerable, though, I could see where it might get annoying if you're playing some level with a lot of corridors.

[JustinFic]

Works great for me too.

Cool graphical and split screen effects. Tearing through another ship with a full charge is wicked. (Favorite ship is the madtak logo one, fourth from the left.) Is it just me or is everyone moving faster in 2-player mode?

I agree on the wall collision- there was a point where I got stuck in the wall (not sure where in the level, but it was in one of the brown asteroid thingies) and the only way out was to shoot straight out at full blast.

It seems sort of odd that I can sit still on attack mode and just let things kill themselves against me. Maybe have the inflicted damage be dependent on how fast I'm going (maybe relative to my max speed, so faster ships don't have an advantage)?

Can you make ESC bring me back to the title screen instead of quitting? Command-Q needs to quit, too.

Finally, I noticed that after I complete the mission and it brings me to the title screen, it doesn't reset my score.

[Joseph Duchesne]

The damage is affected greatly with how quickly you are going. Justin: the game probably runs smoother on split screen mode because the enemy AI is insanely time consuming (It has line of sight, level collision and [experemental] field of view),
Changes so far:
charge meter moved from 0.1 to 0.6 alpha making it visable at all gammas (my laptop shows it clearly at 0.1)
Damage is up 210% and uses a different method
Player selection menus for 1 and 2 player modes are done
Fixed the "stuck in the wall" thing [I think]
Escape now merely sticks you back in the main menu
There are now 3 levels and a game over screen (you can die!)

Here's the new link: http://madtak.staronesw.com/downloads/MadTak.sitx (2.3MB)

To do list (for saturday the 6th):
More Levels (Lee Bond)
Finish the two player mode properly (redo the player-player damage, add winning loosing, add exploding)
Add the music (John Seguin)
Add the items (done, but they don't save in the level editor)
Add items to the Levels (Lee Bond)

[Joseph Duchesne]

New build a bunch of new features:
5 one player levels
fully functional split screen multiplayer
5 powerups
players now change when they switch from attack to move mode and back
fixed the "invisable wall" problem
fixed a player selection problem
changed the level format
fixed the level editor's items feature
and a bunch of more minor stuff.

Once again the link is
http://madtak.staronesw.com/downloads/MadTak.sitx (2.3Mb)

[phydeaux]

For one player mode, would it be possible to implement a radar to let me know where live enemies are? I found myself spending a lot of time wandering around trying to find the last of the enemies. Also, "Sheilds" should be "Shields."

[Joseph Duchesne]

Sure, I'll make it so that when you press the space bar it shows a radar like in Super Pheonix around the player. Thanks for the spelling heads up, I wrote that section of code at 2AM :P

[Joseph Duchesne]

Ok, thats done, also you can play 3 different multiplayer levels now. All I have to do now is write the game guide :D . Any comments/suggestions on the game as it is now?

[Dr. Light]

Yeah, for the little arrows showing where the bad guys are(had some time to test it last night):

For inactive enemies, make the arrows transparent and green. For active ones, as it is right now.

[quartex]

I don't quite get the point of move versus attack mode. I noticed that I can move in attack mode and my energy seems to recharge. Why not just stay in attack mode all the time? I thought your energy wasn't supposed to recharge in attack mode, thus the whole reason for switching back and forth.

It's a cool game, nice graphics, and I like the idea of having 2 modes that you have to switch between.

[Dr. Light]

Hmmm, you do raise a good point there; a good thing to consider as we tweak the mechanics. The the thing about attack and move, though, is that attack is supposed to move you only a short distance, while actual movement lets you go farther and faster. To boot, you can move (somewhat)slowly by holding down on the move key. You can't do that in attack mode.

In this light, we may have to tweak the attack distance to balance the mechanics. In addition, We could make it so that after it hits it bounces back to where it was.

[NCarter]

Joseph, are you aware that the MadTak download (http://www.udevgames.com/downloads/?dlid=20) isn't accessible at the moment? You may have had the same problem as me, in which the URL was apparently erased when I added some screenshots. I'd get it fixed as soon as possible if I were you!

[Dr. Light]

Something is screwy, I tried to fix it, but it didn't take. I submitted it several times, but it keeps putting itself as "http://" instead of the full download link. If a mod could look into this I'd appreciate it.

download link:

<http://madtak.staronesw.com/downloads/MadTak.sitx>

[NCarter]

Something is screwy, I tried to fix it, but it didn't take. I submitted it several times, but it keeps putting itself as "http://" instead of the full download link. If a mod could look into this I'd appreciate it.
Unfortunately, I can't fix this for you; I don't have admin access to the download system. Maybe skyhawk or DoG can do something about it.

That said, maybe your problem's simpler than that. Have you read this thread (http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7660&page=1&pp=15)? Most people seem to have been caught out by the fact that they have to press one more 'submit' button than they expect.

[Dr. Light]

Fixed. Thanks for the help.