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Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI Z80 => Topic started by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 06:31:09 am

Title: FLAKTANK- anti-aircraft shooter
Post by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 06:31:09 am
This is a game I started a while ago, but I never completed it. So this weekend, I decided to finish the game.
As the title says, in this game you're controlling a flak tank (aircraft defence tank) in order to destroy all approaching helicopters.
The graphics are simple, but I think you can recognize what the things are and I'm pretty satisfied with the result.
The controls should be also quite intuitive, but here they are:

  • Turn Tank:
  • Move:
  • Shoot:
  • Aiming help:
  • Pause
  • Quit game instantly:
    Left / Right Arrow Keys
    Up / Down Arrow Keys
    Press 2nd or hold for salvo
    Hold MODE
    Press ALPHA
    CLEAR

At the bottom left of the screen you can see the amount of bullets loaded, it reloads after a while by itself.
The bottom right shows to health bar. Every destroyed helicopter regenerates one HP.
There are 12 levels, but you're REALLY good if you get up to 8 or 9. With a higher level, health and shooting frequency of the helicopters increases.
The current level is indicated by the health bar of the helicopters (below them) when they appear or in the pause screen.
You loose if your health has dropped to 0, then the score (amount of helicopters) is displayed.

Latest version:
                -->  Download from Omnimaga (http://www.omnimaga.org/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=784)  <--
                -->   Download from ticalc.org (http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fileinfo/445/44596.html)   <--

Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: jsj795 on January 28, 2012, 06:52:11 am
wow it's pretty fun :D nice job!! is this the final product or are there still some stuff you want to improve?

and if you want, I can make an animated screenshot for you
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 06:56:27 am
wow it's pretty fun :D nice job!! is this the final product or are there still some stuff you want to improve?
and if you want, I can make an animated screenshot for you

It isn't the final product, there will be some changes in the future after I get some inspiration and feedback.
And I'd be glad if you made an animated screeny for me.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: jsj795 on January 28, 2012, 07:00:35 am
here's the screenshot :)
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 07:05:41 am
here's the screenshot :)
Thanks a lot.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: Nick on January 28, 2012, 07:08:14 am
wow, amazing, looks really great Ö and it's nice to see the helicopters with moving 'wings' dunno how they are called in english..

are the levels just based on a calculation (for the health like level*2 or so) ? if so, then you can have unlimited levels, can't you?
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 07:17:34 am
wow, amazing, looks really great Ö and it's nice to see the helicopters with moving 'wings' dunno how they are called in english..

are the levels just based on a calculation (for the health like level*2 or so) ? if so, then you can have unlimited levels, can't you?

The levels aren't based only on calculation, there is a LUT for the shooting frequency. I only did it up to level 12, because I don't think it is necessary to go any further (or are you good enough to beat it). If you reach level 12, it will keep that as long as you don't die.

Btw: rotor blades they are called I think
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: Hot_Dog on January 28, 2012, 11:17:11 am
I personally think you did a great job with the gaphics :D  8x8 sprites can be difficult to work with
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 28, 2012, 11:26:45 am
Thanks, they are actually 7x7 to get them symmetric. I'm not a fan of greyscale, so I tried to make them as simple as possible.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 29, 2012, 05:50:04 am
Sorry for double post, but I came up with an idea to make my game more interesting and it shouldn't be that difficult:

If you kill two helicopters within a small period of time, you get one of five random power-ups/items.
You can activate an item by pressing ALPHA and it stays for a specific amount of time, before it deactivates and you can get a new one.

  • Heart / Health regenerator:
  • Stopwatch:
  • Rapid Fire:
  • Crosshairs / Auto aiming:
  • Strong bullets:
Regenerates health slowly
Slows down the speed of Helicopters, their spawning and their shooting frequency
Doubles your shooting and reloading frequency
Moves the turret automatically to the first helicopter
Doubles the damage of the bullets

Let me know what do you think of this idea or if you have another power-up/item suggestion
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: Hayleia on January 29, 2012, 06:02:45 am
Good idea :D
What I would do though instead of "killing two helicopters within a small period of time", is adding a new bar that would be the powerup bar. It decreases slowly and killing helicopters fills it. And when it is full, you have the powerup, or a special copter come and gives you the power up when dead.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 29, 2012, 06:33:10 am
Good idea :D
What I would do though instead of "killing two helicopters within a small period of time", is adding a new bar that would be the powerup bar. It decreases slowly and killing helicopters fills it. And when it is full, you have the powerup, or a special copter come and gives you the power up when dead.

Even better, thanks for the suggestion. I try what I can do. Now the only problem I have to deal with is the space on the screen where this bar can fit.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: Hayleia on January 29, 2012, 06:35:57 am
Even better, thanks for the suggestion. I try what I can do. Now the only problem I have to deal with is the space on the screen where this bar can fit.
Maybe divide the health bar into two bars ?
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 29, 2012, 06:57:36 am
Maybe divide the health bar into two bars ?
Yeah, thats a good solution. Maybe I will also shrink the bullet bar a bit horizontally, so there's a 7x7 space for displaying the powerup.


Example:
Powerups: Health regenerator, Stopwatch, Crosshairs, Rapid fire, Strong bullets
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 29, 2012, 09:52:59 am
Time for an UPDATE!!!

As said, I have now implemented those powerups.
  • Heart / Health regenerator:
  • Stopwatch:
  • 2x / Rapid Fire:
  • Crosshairs / Auto aiming:
  • Strong bullets:
Regenerates health slowly
Slows down the speed of Helicopters, their spawning and their shooting frequency
Doubles your shooting and reloading frequency
Moves the turret automatically to the first helicopter
Doubles the damage of the bullets

Have fun playing.  :)
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: Hayleia on January 29, 2012, 10:37:17 am
Yay for powerups :D
Also, I like the new bullet sprites :thumbsup:
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: saintrunner on January 29, 2012, 10:14:34 pm
Hey I do a lot of sprite work (see my sig), and I love coding menus! Could I make a menu for this? or will it just start? It looks really fun! Nice job BTW :)
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on January 30, 2012, 12:22:53 am
Thanks for the offer, I'm not sure if I need this yet. Maybe later, when a highscore list is added or so. (something that gives a reason for multiple menu choises)
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: LincolnB on February 03, 2012, 02:15:37 pm
Looking good! Have you considered allowing the character to move around, and interact with the ground somehow?
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on February 03, 2012, 03:18:53 pm
I actually had the idea to mount the gun on a tank which allows you to move forward or backwards, but in a closed area.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: LincolnB on February 03, 2012, 06:47:45 pm
Good, I like that.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: saintrunner on February 03, 2012, 06:51:34 pm
I feel controlling a turret, and a tank, and shooting might be a bit to hard to multi-task with :P But thats just for me, I have a bad run with multitasking
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: LincolnB on February 03, 2012, 07:12:04 pm
Well I was thinking like something like in Base 671. Arrows to steer, two buttons for forward/reverse, and a button to shoot.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on February 04, 2012, 03:06:42 am
Well I was thinking like something like in Base 671. Arrows to steer, two buttons for forward/reverse, and a button to shoot.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. The turret is fixed on the tank, so you'd have to steer in order to alignthe turret. I think that this will make the game more interesting and perhaps a bit easier because the helicopters won't have that much precision when they have to fire on a moving object.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on February 04, 2012, 08:55:59 am
Ok, the basics of tank moving are included, and a pause screen is added as well.
The only remaing issue is the graphics. I used sprite rotating for the tank, but it didn't turn out as good as I hoped.
So should I use
All of them aren't too difficult, but which should I use?
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: NanoWar on February 04, 2012, 11:07:42 am
The bullets should start closer to the shooter.

Sometimes the flak hat white dots in its sprite, sometimes not. Every angle looks different. Was that intended?

Edit: Looks better than the sprite before, though.

Edit Edit: Why is it a tank now? I thought http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/70/flak882xf.jpg/ . Legs are attached to ground!
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on February 04, 2012, 11:18:32 am
That with the bullets will be fixed soon.

The white dots are caused by the rotating algorithm. I think I have to use different sprites for each position to fix that.

Normally, a flak gun is mounted on the floor with four legs (like the old screenies show). But to spice things up, buttsfredkin and me had both the idea to let it be able to move around. That's why it is now a tank. I think I'm gonna change the name as well.

EDIT: I looked up that there actually are FlaK Tanks, for example the German [wikipedia]Flakpanzer Gepard[/wikipedia], so I will call it FLAKPZ of FLAKTANK.
Title: Re: FLAK - an anti-aircraft shooting game
Post by: MGOS on February 04, 2012, 01:44:16 pm
UPDATE:

Finally, I added movement with the up/down keys.

All other functions are mostly the same, but there are some slight changes:

That's everything for now, have fun playing!  :)