Well, I want to announce my current work in progress: In Harm's Way.
It's a top-down RTS style game along the order of C&C and Warcraft. I have chosen for various reasons to do the game entirely in 2D, using images and sprites.
For anybody who's ever played the Half-Life mod known as Natural Selection, you will recognise the style of the game. The player builds a base and deploys his troops throughout an internal-style map (inside the decks of a spaceship, for example), securing resources, capturing ground and ultimately Encountering, Engaging and Eradicating the Enemy (the classic four E's of RTSG's).
Work in progress. At this stage you will see a functional map (tile based - created using an in-house map editor I created for this purpose, specifically) that can scroll around as per the cursor keys or mousing over the edges of the screen. There are three Marines under the player's control, who can be directed as per Warcraft controls - leftclick to select, rightclick to move. As an added feature, double rightclick issues a RUN order, so they move faster. You will see a functional radar map in the corner, which can be leftclicked to snap the view to a particular location or rightclicked to issue orders to selected Marines. Hold SHIFT to select more than one Marine. Leftclick empty space to deselect. Rightclicking in empty space with no Marines selected will one day activate the build menu, but at this stage just plays a sound. There is a very basic pathing feature - the Marines will generally find their own way to any location you ask them to go, but they will sometimes get stuck. They're still a bit stupid until I can devise a solid pathing algorithm. Hold CTRL to quickly review the status of all Marines on the screen (health and ammo - which serve no useful purpose just yet!)
There's nothing to actually shoot yet, and the map is merely a test one. Half-Lifers may recognise a few of the resources I've used in the game - I use them with permission from the team that created them, in the interim between now and recruiting an artist to replace them with original content.
At this stage I am merely showcasing what I am capable of, for the benefit of other newcomers to the language. I have held a copy of Dark Basic Pro for less than a month, and with the aid of the various users who frequent this forum I have learned enough DB programming to come this far in less than two weeks of coding effort on this particular project. I'd like to thank any user who has answered or contributed to the answer to any of my questions I've posted in the last few weeks. You've helped me learn a lot.
I am keeping the source to myself for the moment, as I intend to go places with this game - although it's none to pretty at this stage the core engine is coming along extremely well. However, I'd like to showcase the features I have coded so far in the interest of assisting other newcomers with games of a similar nature. I have crossed a huge numer of bridges in terms of mathematical calculations, complex formula and a wide range of obstacles whose solutions can't directly be seen just by playing the game. My past programming experience has assisted me greatly in overcoming these problems, and I'd like to share my experiences and snippets with anyone encountering a particular problem getting to the stage I am at now.
This Alpha build is showcased on the game's website (which isn't finished either):
http://members.optushome.com.au/sektor/ihw/index.htm
The download link is in the downloads section, from the menu across the top of the page. Compiled package only here, no source.
I am prepared to share the source for my tile-based map editor, if it interests anyone. It is powerful and flexible, despite being extremely simple, and has a few features to assist with map creation.
Anyway, this has been a long post where a short one was intended, so I'll summarise: I'm showing off my current project, thanking those who helped me get this far, and offering my support and advice for anyone who hasn't come quite as far as I have just yet.
Please have a look and criticise (constructively, if you don't mind). If you see a feature I've created that you're not sure how to implement yourself, feel free to ask about it. I will not provide my original source, but I will give you the concepts and snippets you'll need to figure it for yourself (which is half the fun, and the whole point of learning a language for yourself).
Forgive the game's shonky website; it's a ten minute job in Dreamweaver, made with the intend to be expanded upon if I get any sort of following for the game
