Difference between revisions of "BoltThrower"
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Revision as of 21:31, 8 July 2011
| BoltThrower Game | |
 | |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Titmouse |
| Type | Game - space shoot em up |
| Version | 0.58 |
| Language(s) | |
| Links | |
| Download | |
| Source | |
| Downloadable via the Homebrew Browser | |
| Peripherals | |
   | |
Add your ideas by clicking on the 'discussion' tab or here
Bolt Thrower is currently single player Space Shoot 'Em Up. It’s still work in progress & hopefully a new version will be release once every 2 to 4 weeks. Every effort is being made to detach game data from the code, being 'data driven' anyone can change the look or functionality of the game. Basically a XML configuration file is used rather than hard coded data that’s locked into the code - that would just be plain silly. Please submit your ideas, bug reports or anything else via the discussion page if you wish to help in some way.
Version 0.58 of Bolt Thrower is now released - see change list - Finally found some free time to put together another release.
-=previous version comment=-Version 0.47 of Bolt Thrower is now released - see change list - Don't forgot you can use arrow down to drop mines For this version I was hoping to use more 3D models in game - I had spend a long time modifying a Viper space craft I had found from 68980 polygons / 73793 points to something more usable for a computer game, I ended up with a count of 6903 polygons / 3961 points. The original had used planar mapping which I updated to use UV textures instead and obviously the polygon count was way too high as the model was well designed and extremely detailed – shame I had to downgrade it. This whole process took me ages, especially the UV mapping.
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Anyway I tried replacing the player 2D craft with the 3D viper but it didn’t look right at a distance, it looked tiny, very pointy and sharp edged – I think even if I added mipmaps and other tricks it would still look odd at the tiny scale needed. So in the end I just stuck the Viper in the credits screen.
-=previous version comment=- Version 0.36 of Bolt Thrower is now released - bit of a push to get my release under the 2MB file upload limit, not yet had the chance to look for somewhere else to store my submissions. Had to resize the space backdrop from 1024 to 800 pixels in width. I'll jpeg it for my next release to bring it back to the full 1024, while I'm at it I'll replace the sounds with mp3's using the libmad - MPEG audio decoder library, should help improve things.
Media
Thanks to Cid2mizard - for the youtube clip
Controls
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
 |
Fire Missile |
 |
Use Thrusters |
 |
Drop Probe Mine |
 |
Point at screen to target |
 |
Back to the Homebrew Channel |
 /  /  |
Power off / Standby / Reboot Wii |
Things that will happen:
- Lots of configurable choices on how to control the game
- Mixture of 3D and 2D - the 3D mainly for backdrops (even I can model a rock in space!)
- Lots of bad moving stuff on screen to shoot
- Weapon selection
- Vast levels
- Particles from big booms and propulsion trails, and other stuff like that.
- Level Editor
- Expose any remaining data to XML
- Limit the number of weapons dispersed at one time (people are going crazy with mines) - slowdown fix
- Transparent heads-up display (HUD) - things like score, remaining foe, radar & weapon status
- Camera view stuff (Maybe) – zooms out in relation to the ships speed, and say allow the camera to follow your missiles for a bit, could hold down a button to keep tracking?
- Drop decoy probe
- Drop attack drones
- Drop capture drones
- Sphere of tiny remote shield generators around ship - if one is taken out the others reform to take up the slack at reduced efficiency.
- Manual & auto lock-on target weapons
- Pickups - shield, weapon, bonus points...
Technical stuff
Built with DevKitPro using Windows & MS Visual Studio editor, with the following settings:-
Property pages - Debugging set command to: C:\devkitPro\devkitPPC\bin\wiiload.exe set Command Arguments to: BoltThrower.dol - NMake set Build command line to: make -r 2>&1 | sed -e 's/\(.[a-zA-Z]\+\):\([0-9]\+\):/\1(\2):/ Rebuild all: make clean && make -r 2>&1 | sed -e 's/\(.[a-zA-Z]\+\):\([0-9]\+\):/\1(\2):/ Clean Command line: make clean
Launch using visual studio by pressing F5 - this will run ‘wiiload.exe’ on the pc & pipe the compiled code (BoltThrower.dol) over to the Wii, the homebrew channel needs to be running to recieve.
Libraries used
LIBS := -lfat -lpng -lz -lmodplay -lwiiuse -lbte -lasnd -logc -lm
TinyXML is used to read the configuration file - see 'Configuration.xml' in the game folder
Changelog
Ver 0.58 - 08/07/2011
- Added more front menus
- Added In game music
- Added scrap pick-ups after enemy is destroyed
- Added some missions - mission 6 will never end!
- Added Base defences (gun turrets) on later levels
- Added rendezvous & collect terraforming satellites
- Added base's terraforming shield
- Added enemy fleet attack formations
- Added some more 3D objects
- Added skull at death
Ver 0.47 - 23/04/2011
- Added enemy gunships - just noticed I forgot to add these to the radar, my bad
- Added bigger mine explosions
- Added a controls menu screen - (will add more later to pick other control methods)
- Updated main menu - now shows a 3D WiiMote in the background
- Updated Credits - now shows a 3D Viper (MK2) in the background
- Reduced amount of enemies
- Updated enemies movement logic - speedy enemies now find it harder to lock-on
- Update Intro screen - camera view glides in 3D space
- Added Camera catch-up the player's craft - the player craft will now drift away from the centre
- Added some new 3D models - Viper (MK2) & Wiimote
- Updated 3D object code to use all the layers in a Lightwave object (lwo)
- Bit of code refactoring (reworking internal design), hopefully everything will still work the same
Ver 0.36 - 18/03/2011
- Added Radar - showing enemies, mines, missiles & satellites
- Added Menu, Intro & Credits screen
- Intro screen logo made from mines (scanned from tinylogo.tga), these mines start of slow then spurt off after the crafts.
- Added Music - 'Space Debris' Amiga tracker module, plays while in the menu screens
- Add Trails to enemy crafts
- Changed trails for missiles and mines
- Changed to way collisions work - ship to ship collisions now destroy enemy crafts
- Change the way the 'you are dead' screen looks
- Added 'bye' screen
- Fixed zero bugs "which was nice" - I've noticed the looped engine sound plays on into the menus if you died with thrust burning, I'll fix that on next release, at the moment its a feature ;)
- Added Hardware Drawlist for 3D objects - so pre-build objects can be spat out without the need of the main CPU
- Increased the resolution of Wiimote to help pointer travel off screen and still be active around the edges
- Changed the look of some resource graphics - mainly explosions which also double up as stars and exhaust trails
- Optimised the mines - I was creating and displaying a new mine trail every frame, requiring about 60 objects plus all the overheads that go with it.
- Optimised the dispay code for most objects.
- Added a lower detail moon with some rocks spinnig in orbit
- Improved the lighting on 3D objects
- Added ingame backdrop far into the Z plane so it scrolls slowly, reduced from 1024 width at the last minute to 800 pixels so it fits the 2MB upload limmit - I'm just far to lazy to look for somewhere else to upload, plus its a challenge making a game fit into 2MB ;)
Ver 0.35 - minor update - 05/02/2011
- Shows remaining foes & spores
- More game data moved into the XML configuration
- Sound fix
- Correct Meta.xml version TAG this time, needed for Homebrew Browser
Ver 0.34 - GAME - 29/01/2011
- Added more sounds
- Added probe mines
- Added missile trails
- Added probe mine trails
- Added player ship thruster trail
- Added player collision
- Added blue (ok) to red (overloading) shields
- Added 'Well Done' message once everything (including satellites) are destroyed
- Added 'You are very Dead' message
- Added XML configuration, data used to store graphic positions,sizes, frames & other game data like 'AmountStars'
- Added more types of explosions
Ver 0.23 - DEMO - 18/12/2010
- Enemy drift off into space when hit
- Added explosion trails
- Added a few rocks around the moon
- Added another enemy ship type - takes 3 shots
- Added More sounds
Ver 0.12 - DEMO - 12/12/2010
- Added missle hits
- Added Spore spinny things
- Bad ships go boom
Ver 0.01 - DEMO - 08/12/2010
- First Demo
Old Media
- v0.36 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8IexIoRtfo
- v0.35 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd_kmmN-VCc
- v0.24 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=980s42RKfbQ
Intro Screen v0.36
Menu Screen v0.36
In-Game Screen v0.36
Death Screen v0.36
Game v0.34
Demo v0.23
