Phoenix Stage One
Monday, April 11 2005
Over the last week or so I have started work on a small game project. I decided to start work on a smaller project first so that I can sort out my programming skills in relation to Managed DirectX. At the beginning I was starting to work on a 3D space simulator along the lines of elite, but after the first couple of weeks I found that I should be working on smaller projects and move myself up to the bigger ones. So here is the first.
The first project is going to be a simple shooter in 2d (Using the Direct3D system to draw 2D), I am Calling the Project 'Phoenix'. I am going to use this project as a base to writing a tutorial series on the methods I used. I do know that the methods and code will change as I go along, but I am hoping to document the changes I make and the reasons why. Please note that I will be collecting my information for the project from various sources on the web as well as several books, as I go I will try and post the references that I use and apologise now to any one that I leave out.
To begin with I thought I would post on the items that I would like to include in the project, maybe some one will comment on them and offer some Tips or Tricks to assist. If the Ideas start to come alone fast I will open up a forum for the project.
Notes on Items to include in the project.
- 2D Shooter Application for learning purposes
- Full screen Application that is displayed in a windowed form when debugging
- Background Images, having a stationary background image, and a moving Image to simulate movement of player objects
- Animated Sprites
- Sound
- Standard Keyboard Entry for Controls and General Input
- Title Screens
- Editable maps, i.e. level editor
- Basic AI, and If possible scripting for the AI Functions
- Use configuration files for application settings
- Integrate the images as resources, or some sort of custom format for distribution
- Package up the Application for Distribution, including the .net runtime and MDX Runtime.
- Document the steps as tutorials...
- Over time I will be adding and refining the above list.
Basic Outline of the game.
The basic Idea of the game will be a player’s ship at the bottom of the screen that can move left and right along the x axis. Then it will have various asteroid shapes falling towards it from the top of the screen. These asteroids will be organised into different waves with a certain amount allowed onto the screen at the one time. As the levels increase the amount of asteroids inside each wave and the amount onscreen at the same time will also increase. The ship will have a shield level which will be decreased as the ship collides with objects, when the shields are gone the ship will lose a life (lives will more then likely be 3, but I might make this configurable). To make interesting and not just a shooter the players ship will also have a temperature gauge on their weapons, this will increase as the rate of fire increases, and will decrease over time at a certain rate (Configurable), when the heat is at max the player will not be able to fire any weapons.
Anyway this will do me for today, I may post some more later but this is a start....
