Denial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94QCuBaHPsA

Take a look.. I know it isn't one of my best made videos, I just used my webcam and built-in microphone so the quality isn't great.. but the main point was to show some different aspects of the game I'm working on.

I just watched the video and I'm pretty impressed. I'm glad it's now a 1 player game now, though, as I don't know anybody who would play this with me!

Is there an ETA on it or are you just ambling along with it?

Looks great! Looking forward to playing it someday.

Is there an option to see a full-screen map, and then go back to the main action screen, or would that be a) cheating, b) too resource-intensive?

I'm in the middle of a couple TI 99/4A programming projects right now, but I can't wait to finish them and try my hand at some Vic stuff. You guys are inspirational with some of the great stuff you're doing.

Keith (recent and fired-up Denial convert)

InfernalKeith wrote: Is there an option to see a full-screen map, and then go back to the main action screen, or would that be a) cheating, b) too resource-intensive?

Actually, it is funny, I asked myself the same question a hundred times. I had also thought about making some kind of radar where it would use a high-res screen where 1-pixel would equal one tile such as a tree or water or enemy unit. But in the end, I decided that would make the game too easy.

I've also considered having the tank's own viewscreen act as a high-res radar. That way you could see more than usual, but not the whole map. And maybe make this a limited thing you could only do a few times.

As for resource intensive.. If I displayed the whole screen as a standard map, it would be probably less resource intensive than displaying the 3 separate windows. But using high-res graphics would be because I'm already getting close to pushing memory limitations on a 24K vic-20. I'd need another 2K of character data to pull that off.

Looks a lot of fun. Let us know when you have a playable demo .

I am impressed!

Look good....a unique concept for the VIC-20. Reminds me a little bit of "Firepower" on the Amiga. I love that game.

Were you reading cue cards in the video, or do you normally talk that concisely! You have a talent for video narration.

ral-clan wrote: Were you reading cue cards in the video, or do you normally talk that concisely! You have a talent for video narration.

In most of my videos I type out what I am going to say in a text-editor and then read it back into a microphone. In this particular case I was just using the webcam since I was in a hurry. (this video wasn't meant to be very professional) I actually did have text editor open with some "cues" as to what I was going to talk about. Because I recorded the video of me playing earlier in the day in I knew what all I needed to say about those games. Then I edited the game video and my video together with Final Cut Pro.

Reminds me a little bit of "Firepower" on the Amiga. I love that game.

Agreed. Firepower was a real step up from Atari's COMBAT and mixed in a little CHOPLIFTER action in it as well. The Player versus Player mode over a modem made it a "must have" title. Playing split-screen was okay, but having the fullscreen for each player just made the action better.

Speaking of split screen action, I watched a little bit of the video and it looked to me that the base window, which has the least amount of player activity, consumes most of the screen real estate. Is this observation misinformed? If not, then why wouldn't the base window be subject to a status window, like the alternate "player" window, and then use a larger playing field for where the real action is taking place? Particularly when chunky tile graphic animations are used, it looks a bit confined.

rhurst wrote: Speaking of split screen action, I watched a little bit of the video and it looked to me that the base window, which has the least amount of player activity, consumes most of the screen real estate. Is this observation misinformed?

Well, my line of thinking was that since your base is the most important thing you have to protect, you'd want to be able to see if anything was getting near to the base right away. Also, having a smaller field of view on the tanks makes it more challenging to find your enemies.

Believe it or not, I had originally planned to have the base window be in high-res graphics and show an even larger "radar" like view, with your base being a single blinking pixel in the middle. This, of course, would consume less screen space, giving more for the tanks. But when I realized how difficult that would be due to the character set and memory limitations on the VIC, I decided to leave that off. However, I'm still considering this option if I port the game to the C64 or Plus/4.

You know.. I actually got a near-complete version of this ready at work on Friday when things were a bit slow. and I copied it onto a memory stick to take home so that I could post it for people to play. Only to leave the darned memory stick in the computer. So now I'll have to wait until Monday to post it.

Looking forward to Monday.