Defend your Castle!

[Harrierfalcon]

I am planning on making Defend Your Castle (by xGen studios) in basic!!! I would like to use xLib if it means faster gameplay as well. I want this game to be as fast as it possibly can be--in other words, with almost no lag after a keypress.

I've seen this done once before, but that was in PURE basic and had at least a 2 second lagtime on a keypress.

I am currently looking for people who are interested in helping out on this. I have absolutely nothing done. However, I would also like to cut a few features from the flash game to make it faster and more playable. Like instead of throwing the guys up, squashing them and replacing them with a "*." I don't really want to use 8*8 sprites--this would take up a large portion of the screen needed for the HUD. The features I would want follow:

1. Mages--what fun would the game be without them? Spells include those in the game, with exception of the INSTANT CONVERSION spell.
2. Archers--randomly dying people WHAT FUN!!!
3. All the obvious stuff--HP, MP, score, cash, upgrades, repairs, etc.
4. Using minimal pics--perhaps 2, 1 for the playing field, 1 for the title screen.
5. A saved game feature--not too hard to incorporate.
6. Using the keys [MATH] through [/] (a 3*4 grid) for squashing things.
7. Having different enemy types would be almost mandatory, but I think it would heavily limit speed.
8. Hotkeys for spells(duh!)
9. Instead of having to convert guys, you can hire as many as you want--but you have to pay upkeep for every one!
10. Instead of having people banging on the door with their hands, I would like them to simply run into it and kill themselves. Although this differs from the flash version, it would also make it much easier than having an "A 2" next to your castle to indicate 2 guys banging on your door.

So that's basically it. This is the thread in which most participants will talk with one another on aspects of the game. Simply PM me or easier yet, reply here to be "in". There are no expectations for any volunteers--no full or part time crap. All you have to do is stick your head in once in a while and chat about suggestions. I myself will probably be doing most of the programming, but others can do what they want, post code, and I'll look at it.

I would prefer this not to use any external subroutines. Any volunteers will recieve credit somewhere, according to your username here. If you don't want to by credited in the game by your username, just say so. I will update this thread when I have the engine done.

[Fallen Ghost]

[alexrudd]

Change it to robots or something. Then you could have them connect into larger ones at the door instead of having lots of small enemies.

[slayer117]

i'll help we have a forum up that is currently in the making and it will tell you how to make a fairly good sprite(if you ask) and we can also halp with coding a little

[Harrierfalcon]

My biggest issue right now is making the guys walk to your castle. I need to use a matrix to make reading keypresses easier. I honestly don't know how to do it, and i've been noodling it for about a week.

[WikiGuru]

A way to make them walk to the castle:
store the castle's location to a variable or two.
store the unit's location in a similar fashion.
Use some flavor of a line formula to calculate:

[alexrudd]

The castle doesn't move.

[Harrierfalcon]

I was gonna say....

Won't the castle have preset coordinates and not need any variables?

And I'm pretty sure I said I wanted to use a matrix, not individual variables.

[baorder54]

Ya but just bleep that out. Question. Are you gonna make a cursor to aim at the poeple coming towards the castle or make it so a gun goes up or down. Anyways, that was horrible qwestion. Simpilified: How will you kill ur targets?

[Harrierfalcon]

Dunno. I was thinking of just pressing a certain key to squash in a certain spot.

[alexrudd]

That's probably the best way to do it. Maybe have an on-screen grid to see which key to press? (Or have it for Easy mode, but not for Hard)

I still like the idea of enemies combining/morphing into bigger enemies.

[Harrierfalcon]

How about the grid disappears after a certain level (10, perhaps)?. First thing is to accomplish engine. I just want to use a matrix and have the guys essentially side-scroll to the castle.

[WikiGuru]

I wasn't saying that they were exactly variables, but just that you know what I'm describing. Besides, I don't know what coordinates you're going to use for the castle, anyways.

[baorder54]

i think that after 10 levels of having a grid to help, u wouldnt need it anymore. That is easy in my view but wut if u used the arrow keys to rotate a coannon that shot in 5 certain areas. If im correct, ur thinking of something like if u press 1 it kills people in the farthest spot, 2 and u kill people next clsoest spot. But if u had to rotate a cannon 4 times to get from spot 1 to 5, thatd be challenging

[Harrierfalcon]

I kinda remember saying maybe 10, not 10.

Anyways..how much would you guys like to see this? I mean, I'm really not that motivated any more, for some reason.

[baorder54]

Well it would be kinda cool to see it made. Im not a fan of this game. Not even a flash defend castle game. But im sure others would enjoy it, especially if its fast fun and well made.