#godscar

[iamdangerace]

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Psychic TV, Godscar and Voodoo Acid Sound from the Unofficiail Relese The Revolution Will Be Televised, Not On Label (Physchic TV), Variety Arts - Los Angeles (1988).

Side A Has The Phrase "There Is No Message" Etched Into The Matrix. Side B Is Etched Artwork.

[xerenarcy-blog]

Godsource

So the time has finally come to put money where my mouth is, and build a game engine to meet my crazy API expectations. In the last post, which I admit has been a while ago, I mentioned Project Melee and what that is turning into, but didn't say much about how I would build such a thing.

As it happens, I have had plans for a space shooter and melee combat game for some time now. Depending on mood, I'd find interest in one or the other, making baby steps at times and otherwise leaping into negative progress. That's R&D for you...

Around the time I was writing the previous post, shortly afterwards I made some leaps on how I would design the game engine of Melee. Really I just came to conclude that a traditional engine would not cut it, it would need to be a scripted engine that is lightweight, extensible and can arbitrarily define the game behavior with as little restriction or performance loss as possible.

As it happens Lua is the answer - I came across it early on in my programming experience, but didn't think much of it at the time. Years later it's features (or lack of) are precisely what I needed; Lua functions as an embedded scripting language, effectively substituting any machine-code / compiled code with (in my opinion) the smallest, usable functional and data-processing programming language.

Godsource is effectively a C++ program with graphics, sound and other essential machine-code bindings, like a typical engine. Unlike a typical engine it does not put these subsystems together in C++ aside from putting them in scope of eachother - instead the C++ side rushes to give full control to Lua, allowing Lua to control the entirety of the game engine. It is due to Lua's lack of domain-specific constructs that let the engine be defined in terms of subsystems alone, leaving most of the engine architecture up to the author of a game.

The engine is still nowhere ready but I am working on it actively here. Feel free to drop me a line if you think you might be interested in it or want early access to beta versions, or just have questions about it. I do plan on releasing most of the Lua source for the engine, for others to make their own games, but any profit of said games and I do ask for written permission from me first.

Games I am working on that are using this engine:

Terra Zero - Spaceship shooter game, emphasis on customizing the spaceships.

Godscar / Project Melee - Free-form fantasy melee combat game (see previous post).

Will post updates when there are any...

[xerenarcy-blog]

Project Melee - Decade of Dreams

Much has happened in the last 10 years - I was introduced to programming, and having access to video games in my youth the two naturally came to coexist as my hobbies. it is about 10 years ago that I decided to 'improve' on the games I felt were the most enjoyable of the day - chiefly platformers, close combat games and Anime-grade gratuitousness all round.

The idea started as a side-scroller platformer, using 2D raycasting for a mock-shadow system, which I thought was interesting to do and would have a neat effect going for it. My vision was, though, ahead of its time by years, and on the journey I've designed, redesigned, scrapped and re-invented the concept time and time again. That journey has come to an end, an apex where I now have the skills, knowledge and vision to put my imagination into substance (ie, ironically, digital code).

The idea as it is now borrows from the likes of Dragon Ball, Fairy Tale, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach (all manga and anime), Magicka, Mirrors Edge, Oni (indie games), ESF, The Specialists (CS 1.6 mods), and the list doesn't end there, probably (I can't recall all of it if I tried).

Conceptually it is still a free-form close combat game (hence why it's called Project Melee). The number of animations is set but they are defined in a way that makes them different depending on timing and aim. Principle is that attacks or movements that require no effort or planning is not representative of skill, while the particulars of executing a movement or attack should be available for tweaking / manipulation if desired without much extra hassle.

On top of the close-combat, there will be a magic system along the lines of how Magicka does it (with ideally equal emphasis on magic and regular attacks/movements). However I found that simply the combination of magic elements is not enough variety, so the order of element charges will matter as well. The number of spell 'methods' will also increase (ie, the number of ways to use the summoned charges) - regular attacks can utilize any spell combination, as well as self-casting, AOE casting, aimed casting and blocking/shielding.

I suppose the official name for this game would be: Godscar

Stage 1 will be the design of the physics engine and graphics engine, the framework of the rest of the game engine.

Stage 2 will commence with the character animation design.

Stage 3 will begin to introduce magic to the gameplay

Stage 4 will review the graphics, add sound and add polish to the visuals in general. This stage will also add character design beyond the physical shape.

Stage 5 and beyond is not certain as yet, but likely will have NPC design as well as level design, all to the shape of what type of end-goal the game will have. If there is to be multiplayer, it will be considered in this stage and possibly implemented here, if not in Stage 6.

That's it for the time being, a little taste of what has been brewing for a decade inside my mind. Till next time...