That old...familiar feeling (U46)
Getting to know the void
The National Space Centre based in Leicester is the Uk’s Largest planetarium with a unique 3D Simulator Experience and an iconic 42m high Rocket Tower. Recently, the company's partners have negotiated with the owners of the rights to one of the earliest video games made, ‘Spacewar’ and Leicester University have set up a competition designed to draw new customers to the museum facilities. The competition is to make a video game wh
could be played in one of its six interactive galleries.
Spacewar! is one of the earliest video games and was developed on the PDP-1 computer at MIT in 1962, fifteen years before The Golden Age of Video Games. It was also an important early prototype of computer graphics techniques that later became standard in the industry.
Leicester University has set the competition on behalf of the Partners with a pre-entry qualifiers brief. It’s your job to produce a digital response for an up-to-date videogame level using the 1962 retro video game Spacewar as your inspiration. The winner would then use a 2D game engine to build the game. The competition is designed to attract a new audience to ‘The National Space Centre’.
Botched introductions
Ok this is something I don't really do but in the name of skill development I'm eager to get into. To start this project I'm going to look online for different games similar to what this game should eventually look like. Space war being the obvious first step into creating this unique looking game. I'm hopping to for this game to feature a more in depth movement system.
The main ship players will be playing as will feature two movement modes. Attack position and Agility mode. Attack position will allow the player to be more effective in combat and the Agility mode will allow players to move more quickly but be more vulnerable to enemy attacks.
The Game Standard
I'm wanting to add multiple enemy types with different gameplay mechanics to make fighting them interesting. One of the enemies will be a standard fighter class, which'll be a standard health, standard speed enemy. Similar to the player's ship. Two other enemy types will get introduced later on, one being the bomber class and the last being the interceptor class. The bomber will be a slower tankier craft with heavier weapons and reinforced hull. And the Interceptors are the polar opposite. Being quick and nimble but a lot weaker as a result, they make up for this by appearing in much greater numbers, swarming the player. Whereas bombers will only appear 2 or 3 at a time.
In addition to enemy ships I'm wanting to incorporate stationary weapon platforms or mines that the player can destroy to clear the way for allies. Which in the case of the mines would be vital in protecting yourself and allied ships. Pickups will be something that I hope to add, these will vary from modified weapons, health bonuses and even collectibles such as paint jobs for ships or new weapon unlocks.
A Capital problem
Another unique gameplay element will be the mobile objectives. The ship classes are designed to defend their Capital ships. Which you, the player have to destroy. The enemy capital ships were based on the design of the Star Destoyers seen in the Star wars franchise, with the distinct triangular shaped hull and dull grey colour scheme.
The Best Offence...
In addition to having to attack the enemy fighters and capital ships you will also need to focus on defending your ships as they assist in attacking the enemy armada. Natuarally your ships will not be as powerful as the enemy ships but similar to the interceptors, are nimble, at least as far as capital ships go. It will be vital that players protect key weak points on ally ships which will be targeted by bombers to ensure a quick victory.
Keeping Control
This game will be played on PC with a standard "WASD" movement setup with "Shift" being used to swap in and out of attack position and using "SPACE" to fire primary weapons and "I" for accessing your ship's inventory and equipping new weapons or pickups.
Location, Location, Loca...oh wait
As far as map design there isn't really much in the way of options. Being set in space... Although I did have an idea to have different stages be set in the orbit of certain planets in the Solar System, and when you complete a stage you get access to a mini Profile of the planet you visited, in keeping with the educational Planetarium Locale. They wouldn't be too wordy, almost in the style of trading cards, with the name at the top, and then basic info underneath a portrait image of the planet followed by a brief description of what makes said planet unique. Obviously this isn't something that everyone would be at all interested in but for science buffs it is interesting information that may provide more context as to why your character is there in the first place.
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