Occasional Gamer

XNA development blog of Elbert Perez

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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.

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My new tower defense game is shaping up

Looks like my latest creation is starting to shape up. I've nailed down a couple of key gameplay features that will differentiate my game from other Tower Defense Games. First of all my cursor that I use to drop down towers also serves double duty as tower enhancer. Towers don't get upgraded traditionally like other tower defense games, but the presence of the player avatar near the towers effectively upgrades them while within the radius of the avatar. Secondly, I have movable waypoints, not all of them are movable but some are. There is a special tower that you can buy that can move the waypoints to the direction you choose. Also it is possible for certain waypoints to randomly move in different directions. This gameplay feature makes the game a bit more dynamic as the flow of the creeps can change at any moment in time.  I posted a video to show the new gameplay features. Enjoy! 

Categories: Videos | XNA
Posted by Elbert on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:24 AM
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Getting the Tower Defense Game Framework into shape

This has always been my problem in making games. Assets! I don't have the resources to hire a proper artist for every project so I tend to gravitate towards less asset intensive games. I think this has to stop, so I've decided to take up art work generation for my games to the next level! I've added 2d animation classes to the framework I am using. This has already been implemented to my latest update to Impossible Shoota. 
Anyways, the video I posted up here is about my current tower defense game project. I called it What? because I seriously have no idea what to name it yet or what central theme it should be. But this is my current work in progress. 

Categories: XNA | Tower Defense
Posted by Elbert on Thursday, February 18, 2010 1:32 AM
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Impossible Shoota released on Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 ms pts

 

Click the image to go to Xbox.com and download the game

 

My game Impossible Shoota has just been released on Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 ms pts. It is a straightforward dual stick shoota where you fight 500 enemies, and at the end you are rewarded with a game code for my other game Neo Terra!


Categories: Impossible Shoota | XNA
Posted by Elbert on Tuesday, February 09, 2010 5:54 PM
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Another Color Defense Prototype

I recently implemented non-movable waypoints to bring a bit more organization into the chaos that happens when the waypoints for the creeps wander around. I've also added different types of creeps mainly the soldier, tank, and runner. I am still currently hanging on to the idea of saturation vs de-saturation like my other game impossible shoota.

Categories: XNA | Color Defense
Posted by Elbert on Sunday, February 07, 2010 12:12 PM
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Prototype for my next game

This is a more organic version of a tower defense game. This is just the prototyping stage, but I have been playing with color to relay information about the enemies as well as a more dynamic routing system for the AI. 

Categories: Games Research | XNA
Posted by Elbert on Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:14 AM
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Impossible Shoota almost ready to release

I'm in the final stages of getting Impossible Shoota ono the XBLIG service, hopefully I won't have anymore setbacks to getting it to the service. Here is the final trailer for the game. Enjoy!

Categories: Impossible Shoota | XNA
Posted by Elbert on Friday, January 29, 2010 1:24 PM
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More changes to the game

After discovering that the game had an inefficient way of handling the turrets I have been able to increase performance of the game on the Xbox 360 which has always been a pain point in developing on XNA. I've also cleaned up the collision handling code and removed alot of excess calls that were not needed in the first place. I've also changed how the projectiles are rendered to make them more visible and crisper to the user, I used to do additive blend to make them more glowy, but the end resultas a bit blurrier and less defined outline that made them hard to see. I also made the background into a darker shade to make the ships seem more saturated/desaturated. I have also been tweaking with gameplay as I am trying to find the balance of making the game exciting at the first enemy versus easing in the player into the action. Overall though I am happy with the changes to the game both visually and techincally. However I am still unhappy with the gameplay. Here is a video of the latest changes:


Categories: Impossible Shoota | XNA
Posted by Elbert on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 10:06 AM
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It's amazing what a week can do to your game

Over the week I started implementing polishes to the game. I added top times, because it is a mandatory for any game like this to have a top 5 table :) I've also gone the route of grey vs color. Enemy ships start desaturated (grey) but as they get more damaged they get saturated with color until they over saturate and explode. I've also cleaned up the HUD and added icons to the data that is being represented to the player, this added a better sense of polish to the game. So far so good, I should be able to submit the game for review within 2-3 weeks time :)

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Categories: XNA | Impossible Shoota
Posted by Elbert on Sunday, January 17, 2010 12:59 PM
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Preview of my next upcoming game "Impossible Shoota"

Coming soon to Xbox 360

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Categories: XNA
Posted by Elbert on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 1:39 PM
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Neo Terra Reviews are coming in

From GayGamer.net (http://bit.ly/6V3YK8)

"Neo Terra - 80 MS points. Neo Terra is a real-time space strategy game that moves at a very quick pace akin to the popular iPhone game Galcon. The game presents a galaxy of planets to conquer that will produce more ships that you can send and conquer more planets. The game creates an addicting tug of war dynamic between you and your opponent where both sides will be taking and retaking planets from each other. There are two main game types, with the first an all out domination match where the last player standing is the victor, as well as a king of the hill type mode where a player wins by controlling a flagged planet for a set amount of time. The multiplayer extends to up to 4 players, with the option to also have 4 AI players in the mix as well, making for a truly hectic strategy experience." 

 

Will add more as they come in 


Categories: XNA | Neo Terra
Posted by Elbert on Saturday, November 21, 2009 4:17 PM
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