Beetles - a game without a plot...

[SimonH]

Hi All,

As part of my Msc in AI I need to write a game and so far I've come up with Beetles.

My problem is that I got so involved in the technical side I forgot a plot  There's two teams of beetles, red and yellow, (maybe other creatures too) and they need to interact somehow - I had a vague idea about each team having to collect a certain number of gems to win a level, but now I'm not so sure...

Can any of you guys suggest a fun game for these beetles to play against eachother?

Currently the beetles can't see eachother at all, they just nibble beans or wander about, but there will be combat - I just haven't implemented it until I've got a better idea what I'm doing! The status bars don't mean anything yet either.

Help me out, folks! All suggestions welcome!

Edit: screenshot added

[nva225]

I just get "Several Java Virtual machines running in the same process called an error". It pops up twice, then renders me with a blank screen. I tried to close all other Java processes I had running, but it didn't do anything to change the message.

Are you testing this on a dual-core btw?

[zammbi]

Works great for me, kinda cool too. Can't wait for extras.
What 3d engine you used to make this?

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[DzzD]

works very well here, I love the loading splash, I dislike the fact that the window cannot be resized.

[gouessej]

Nice!! Please add it into the Tome even though it is not finished. If you want, I will let it in the incubator.

[SimonH]

I just get "Several Java Virtual machines running in the same process called an error". It pops up twice, then renders me with a blank screen. I tried to close all other Java processes I had running, but it didn't do anything to change the message.
Are you testing this on a dual-core btw?

Strange - What browser are you using?

What 3d engine you used to make this?

It's based on jPCT

Nice!! Please add it into the Tome even though it is not finished. If you want, I will let it in the incubator.

I'd rather not for the moment; wait 'til there's actually something to play!

[Riven]

It is the year 2108.

After all that vague global-warming stuff made humankind (and most mammals for that matter) go extinct, a few cave-trapped beetles roamed the planet for a few. It didn't take long before good old Mother Nature showed her ugly face and the remaining spicies began to compete again to gain control over the cave.

You, my precious (last?) human, were just heading back from your trip to the Magellan Nebula, only to see your planet's ecosystem decimated.

Your task is to sit back and relax, killing the offspring looking least like yourself, pushing for humans to evolve.

Go go go!

[DzzD]

a good gameplay may be let user place units (beetles) and set some parameters than click "Go", and than AI make some kind of fighting between the two teams, and you can navigate to see the result.

for the story ? I am sure Riven can find

[dishmoth]

Very nice!  The frame rate did seem to judder at times (not obvious in the FPS counter) but that could just be my computer.

Can any of you guys suggest a fun game for these beetles to play against eachother?

It reminds me rather of Pikmin (and especially the two-player mode in Pikmin 2) so how about a foraging, real-time strategy game like that?

Let's say the beetles wander around looking for (randomly appearing) food items and carrying any they find back to their (red or yellow) nest.  When N food items are brought back to the nest, a new beetle is born.  The red and yellow beetles are generally non-aggressive towards each other, except perhaps for occasionally mugging an enemy beetle for its food item.

The player (a disembodied camera) explores the play area and helps out their team by:

• clicking on food items to summon one of their beetles to collect it;
• clicking on enemy beetles to stun them for a second;
• clicking on friendly beetles to power them up for a short time during which they move faster, fight better, and (this is the good bit) try to kill any nearby enemy beetles

The game ends when all of the beetles on one of the teams are dead.  Since the player is helping out one of the teams, the other team could start with more beetles to compensate.

As for a story, erm...  the yellow beetles are evil and must be destroyed?

Simon

[nva225]

Soo apparently the game seems to work now. Though unfortunately I don't have time to run and test atm, so will do comments later on. But the multiple JVM error seems to have dispersed. I did just update to Firefox 3 though so I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it? (doubt it but dunno?)

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[SwampChicken]

Screenshot(s)?

[zammbi]

There's some sshots on his website.

[irrisor]

I get this on 9% loading:

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22

[ Wed Jun 18 09:33:17 CEST 2008 ] - ERROR: A texture with the name 'system' has been declared twice! network: Cache-Eintrag nicht gefunden [url: http://www.hayles.demon.co.uk/beetles/resources/scenes/beetles.xml, Version: null] network: Verbindung von http://www.hayles.demon.co.uk/beetles/resources/scenes/beetles.xml mit Proxy=DIRECT wird hergestellt Exception in thread "Thread-180" java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.net.SocketPermission 193.195.70.8:80 connect,resolve)    at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(Unknown Source)    at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(Unknown Source)    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(Unknown Source)    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkConnect(Unknown Source)    at java.net.Socket.connect(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.NetworkClient.doConnect(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.openServer(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.<init>(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.New(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getNewHttpClient(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.plainConnect(Unknown Source)    at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.connect(Unknown Source)    at e.c(Unknown Source)    at Beetles.a(Unknown Source)    at Beetles.run(Unknown Source)    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

(XP, FF2.0.0.14)

[EgonOlsen]

I got a

1	Exception in thread "Thread-180" java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.net.SocketPermission 193.195.70.8:80 connect,resolve)

once after 9% too. After clearing the Java cache and restarting the browser, it loaded fine (which may be just a coincidence).

[SimonH]

The story so far;

The beetles have to gather (randomly dropped or strategically placed) items like beans, gems, &c and bring them back to their home. Here they can mix these 'ingredients' together to make new beetles, new kinds of creatures and spells (spells give abilities such as 'stun' or 'haste'). The winning team is the one that gathers the 3 ingredients needed to make an exit portal.
Anyone think of any improvements?

The latest version lets you pick things up (spacebar to drop them) but no actual mixing yet...

[zammbi]

Is it just me that I'm having trouble loading the site?

[DzzD]

nop same here, also the first screenshot in the first post seems to not be accessible too

[SimonH]

*sigh* I'm starting to hate my ISP. Apparently it'll all be back up at 2000 GMT.
Apologies!

[CommanderKeith]

From a technical point of view, this game is really cool, I like it. And thanks for adding in the wireframe view etc, that's really interesting. As for gameplay, I think you need to make it a shooting game - they always just work well in 3D, but nothing much else does.

Maybe the beetles can shoot poison stingers or something? And the spiders can shoot webs?

Nice work.

[SimonH]

Finally seems to be back up and working - next time they do this to me I'm changing my ISP.

[zammbi]

Seems there's a bug which randomally makes you walk backwards for a while.

[DzzD]

just want to say to you that my son really love your game 

[SimonH]

Seems there's a bug which randomally makes you walk backwards for a while.

That's not a bug, that's real life! 

just want to say to you that my son really love your game 

And I love your son! Fais a lui les bises pour moi!  (pardon my french!)

[SimonH]

Another update: Now you can shoot at beetles to flip them over (and make them drop things).
By rapid clicking you can hit them several times (my current record is 5!)
And yes, I know the missiles go through walls sometimes!

[zammbi]

hehe cool.
I can get 7, could do a lot more if further back.

[Eli Delventhal]

Looks very cool! I love games like this.

[viwoj]

Thanks good game

[Jesja]

I cant play, the window is filled black and nothing happends! Too bad, I liked the look of it, bit greyish, theres too many games out there that look terrible because they use too strong colors.