Alien Eyes Invasion (On Hold)

[_Al3x]

Hello everyone! My name is Alex and I'm new here!
 
I'm from Argentina, so pardon me for any weird way of writing or any grammar horror, I mean, error  
 
About the game

The game so far it's a simple remake of Space Invaders. Once I polish the engine and the code, I plan to turn it into a bigger project to make the game more appeal and fun!
Right now all graphics are made by me using Pain.NET, but I asked a friend of mine who is far more skilled to draw some graphics, let's see what he comes up with in a few weeks or so! I'm so exited about it!

Working on
- Tools for easy addition of features.
- Level editor.
- Implementing XML

TO-DO
- Finish Space Invader-like game engine with tools for easy addition of levels, enemies and stuffs.
- Add scroll like mode for new game mode!
- Add animations!
- Add sounds!
- Add unique secret features involving 3 types of Invasions and 3 game modes. All in one "Defend the Solar System sort of Campaign"!
- Make a playable applet version?

Done
- General Game design, theme and story.
- Basic Space Invader-like mode.

I'll leave some screenshots, I would love to read your thoughts about it!
 

Edit: Grammar check
Edit: 8/3/12:
- Added a better Showcase Image to better fit this site.
- Updated the post with project news.
- Added (W.I.P.) to post title to better match game status.
Edit: 18/4/12:
- Changed the title from (W.I.P.) to (On Hold).

[ReBirth]

Hello there new member. Welcome to JGO.

[_Al3x]

Thank you kind sir 

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[ra4king]

Hey _Al3x and welcome to JGO!

How long ago did you start learning to program? The screenshots looks pretty good for a beginner!

You should read this post to get a basic idea of where you could be headed with java.

Keep up the good work and good luck!

[_Al3x]

Hi ra4king! Thanks for your reply.
I study programming since 2006/7, i don't know exactly. But it wasn't until this past 6 months that I been really trying to make games!

I know where to start to learn to make games and program in java, but I WILL read your link as soon I can, promise!
One of my goals to be part of this comunity is to learn everything I can from you guys, so I appreciate very much all your hints!

So now more of my game:
Here are some more screenshots.



Right now there are only 5 levels with increasing dificulty, although overall dificulty is pretty low, I will tweak this later.
I´m working on implementing some sort of GUI, I just don´t know how yet, any advice would be awsome!

For now, the "gui" it´s an entity like the aliens, the ship or the shots. It´s an 800x600 picture with borders, a bottom "holder" for game info (yet to implement somehow) and a transparent center.

The entities of the game check boundruies within 800x600 (windows fixed resolution) minus the gui border width and heigth. This is pretty lame, but it's the only thing I came up with

The other downside it's that the gui is re-drawn every single time, along with the other entities. I don't like this a bit, not just for performance (wich this game won't suffer any time soon), but for clear proyect and game design's sake!
I mean, I NEED to get an easy way to draw it once and leave it there and then put things like info text and stuff within it, here is a screen of what I would like to achieve:



If anyone can point me in the right direction to get that working, I would appreciate it very much!

EDIT: I've just added a new graphics for alien's shot, it was the same as the ship's, but now it's alien-green! Soon more screens

[_Al3x]

Ok, so GUI has been postponed, so I focused on learning something new and with a lot of help from a friend, I learned a little bit of XML.
I kind of like it, so I'm implementing it to the levels and enemies.
This will allow me to design levels more freely and add content much easier!

My friend also suggested to make a level editor, that would be awesome! I imagine you guys sharing your custom levels!
How about level packs? The limit is the imagination! (and my skills )

[_Al3x]

Hello everyone! I've updated the main post.

I've decided how the final game will be. It's a big project now! I hope I can develop some new features soon to show them to you!

The game WON'T be a space invaders clone. That will be a game MODE within' the game. Some sort of battle instance!
As 99% of the game it's on my head (and on a txt file), I don't want to talk much about it without having something more to show. So, see you soon, on the next game update!
( I really want to prepare a playable version for next update )

[_Al3x]

Ok, the weekend it's over. I regret that I couldn't get much done. I spend most of the time at work and couldn't code very much (I think I didn't even got a single line done!). But I did advance a bit in other areas.

- Cleaned eyes art, now they are sharper and with no smoothed edges that caused weird pixel colors.
- Went from gif to png (don't know why I used gif on the first place tho'  ). That made my resources foulder go from 15,7kb to sweet 9,40kb. I know it's not a big deal, but it represents ~40% reduction! When the game gets into phase 2 and 3 it will have many many more sprites, and 40% less weight will mean a lot more.
- Made some GUI art, buttons, fonts and stuffs, now the current GUI sprite looks a bit better.

So now I have everything to implement the main windows wich will have 2 buttons to begin with, "New game" and "Exit".

See you soon!

PS: I'll leave the new eyes sprites and the buttons here for you to take a look , also, Solar System for phase 2 !!!!!!

      




PS2: I know, the solar system is pretty lame, I don't think I can make the planets proportional and fit 800x600 WHILE making all of them visible and selectable at the same time! Also, the "green" texture it's provisional. I need to rework the hole system, like moving it way more to the right to better fit the planets and MAYBE allow me to make some of them bigger. Pretty much everything is WIP so changes may occur at anytime!

[StumpyStrust]

Hey its nice to see someone working hard on a project and keep it up.
I saw some of your art and you having problems with planets for a solar system so I looked around in meh images folder and found these

http://www.mediafire.com/?933vh21h7mlx336

Its just a few planets and some backgrounds. I think they are all royalty free. Planets are 256x256 backgrounds are 800x600.

Hope it helps

[_Al3x]

Well thank you StumpyStrust, it's nice to have new a reply on my showcase post!

Also, I can't thank you enough for those images, I'll use some of them, at least as inspiration!

To keep it up, I'm cleaning hard the code, there was many things holding me back when I wanted to implement new things or features, so I'm making it more upgrade-friendly.

See you soon!

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[_Al3x]

Hello everyone! Sorry I been so quiet, I been working HARD rewritting everything from scratch.

I remade the solar system to better fit everything, implemented different game states, and many more things, but yet I'm far from a playable beta, well, maybe not so far

So, I just wanted to keep this alive and let you know I keep solid progress, here's two screens, hope you like them

This is the main menu, the background and logo moves and the buttons have a glow effect (should have capture it ) when the mouse is over

This is the map view, here the aliens appear and select a planet to invade, then you go there with your ship and the fight stats. You have to save the Solar System!! From the Eyes!!! Because!!!


PS: This game has GREAT help from ra4king, [zman], zngga and others

Edit 9/4/12: I have taken better screens of the actual state of the game, showing the glowing effect of the manu buttons plus a better view of the Solar System. If you pay attention, you may spot a worm hole!!! (It actually looks kinda like a black hole, but anyway...), also, secrets!

[H3rnst]

I like the improved graphics. Looking forward to the playable version!

[_Al3x]

I've put this project on hold, since I've starting a project with someone else. It will be my first project where I work with someone!
I hope I can get something working soon to show you guys .