I was asked to write an article for a magazine called ‘Game Coder’. They seem to have nicely focused special issues, and they were planning an AI one so my article on Genetic Algorithms fitted in well.
Afterburn 2150 – Beta
Afterburn 2150, a space shooter that takes you on a tour of the solar system, is nearing completion (phew!).
The reason headphones are recommended (apart from the kickin’ menu music) is that the 3D audio helps you know where offscreen enemies behind you are shooting at you from.
Afterburn update..
I have been making good progress with Afterburn 2150 over the last couple of months.
In the last few days I got the powerup system finalised: there will be 6 different powers: afterburn, rapidfire, multifire, shields, guidedfire, and bomb.
Initially, the powerups were to be collected by driving thru 3D objects in the game, but this seemed (and looked) too cheesy, so eventually I dropped that idea and made it so that you gather ‘energy’ at the same time as points, and then spend this energy on the powerups by sliding out the 6 icons on the right of the screen. I prefer how this plays out anyway, as it adds some choice and tactical decision making which you wouldn’t get if you were simply collecting specific powerups onscreen.
Music was another aspect which I worked at and eventually backtracked on. I’m using a really nice track “Ride the Wave” by a guy called Matt Brodie, from Shockwave Sound. Nice crunchy guitar, solid drum section and plenty of ride cymbals (which carry across nicely even on small speakers). I sliced the whole thing into loops and then had them dynamically chosen based on the on-screen action – but it got too repetitive, so eventually I moved the whole song back to the menu screen, where it works really well. The in-game sounds now involve spacecraft engines, ‘flyby’ sounds, bullets and explosions, all in 3D. The 3D aspect is actually quite important since often the enemy are firing at you from offscreen and you want to basically duck and dive, dodging away from whereever a bullet is coming from. The audio is from freesound.org
There’s also an online highscore system and there will be a few ships to choose from. I’m hoping to get the game out as a Beta version on Android in the next week or two.
New Lands, Darkwind-style
There has been a very encouraging upswing in creative contributions from Darkwind players recently. Two or three people have been producing really nice new racetracks and wilderness maps, and a particularly well written fiction set in 2060’s Evan is underway. When it’s ready, I’d like to add this fiction to the ‘official’ stories, which currently include an atmospheric and quite personal account of the early days after the apocalypse (‘The Birth of Deathracing‘) and a more objective yet equally compelling description of the worldwide experience of the Solar Event (‘In the Beginning‘). What I really like about the new story (working title ‘Brooke’s Story’) is that it’s set some 40 years later, and shows a world in which everything is changed, yet life goes on in a new way. Somehow I find well written player fictions set in Darkwind particularly pleasing; it’s because I feel I have personally inspired something artistic to come to life.
Anyhow, I’ll be talking about Darkwind fiction again at a later date. ‘Tales from the Wasteland’, a collection of Darkwind stories, is planned.
But for now, some images of the new maps..
We will finally have the 9th town, Morgan, in game very soon. This is a frozen town high in the Western Mountains, largely cut off from the rest of Evan. Stefan Bondier’s excellent start to the maps for this region have been picked up by Mike Mueller, and we’re close to having these ready to go:
There are also several new race tracks, including an anarchic tumble down the side of a volcano in the town of Firelight:
