A Hole In the Earth (Blaster Master type game)

Hi ryrydawg!

Yep, the layout is 10,000 x 10,000 px, but only around half of it is currently used for the play area. When I start building out the actual areas I plan on having each one be at least twice that size if I can. It will all depend on how well I can optimize the game with the current test map.

Hi ryrydawg!

Yep, the layout is 10,000 x 10,000 px, but only around half of it is currently used for the play area. When I start building out the actual areas I plan on having each one be at least twice that size if I can. It will all depend on how well I can optimize the game with the current test map.

Awesome man. I was worried that creating a layout that size would cause issues but clearly it doesn't.

Thanks again

ryanrybot - I think one of the recent updates kind of deals with optimizing larger layouts right?

mudmask, there were a couple I believe. Render cells is a good one that was inlcuded late last year. Also, the "recreate initial objects" system action was added, so you can destroy objects outside of your current room and recreate them when you enter the room again. That will limit the collision checks to only a handful of enemies at a time. The problem with that is you need to spawn every enemy, then destroy them all at the start of the layout, which could take some time depending on the amount of enemies per layout.

This is looking great, man that tank feels satisfying to drive around. Keep it up Ryan.

Thanks for the encouragement GenkiGenga! I'll try to make something worth playing.

I will need to come back to this soon - like when I'm off work and on my own computer.

If I don't seem to reply in the near-future, by all means, PLEASE tag me or message me for feedback. I loved the original Blaster Master and long to play it all the way through again. So definitely "hunt me down".

WOW! I played through and loved it! I even found the hidden area with the extra shield. It plays very smoothly and right now my only main issue is that when the enemies are stationary, they can be hard to hit when just below the line of fire from the cannon. But still so fun.

Thank you very much Rhindon! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I really appreciate the feedback.

It's really nice to hear that people are having fun with it so far, as it brings me hope that I'm on the right track.

I'm quite surprised that Blaster Master's mechanics aren't used in platform games more often, especially the ability to jump out of the vehicle and run around, which I think is the bees knees.

ryanrybot - Indeed. There's a lot of dual-mechanics and exploration to be had with the Blaster Master model. I definitely encourage you to keep on this project if you feel your heart is in it (don't wear yourself out on something you're not into, yourself). But I personally think you have a solid start (and then some) and will do amazingly awesome to include your own fresh spin on the BM model (I'm trying to coin a new phrase in gaming...pass it on LOL).

Haha Rhindon! You could start a whole movement!

ryanrybot - *GRINS* Dude, I could write a year-long sermon series and bring people to Jesus AND have a love for video games!

It sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this already, —

ryanrybot - Indeed. But I'm still greatly inexperienced and how I'm going to execute these plans and dreams is going to be no small task. Half the time I'm pretty sure I'm flying blind or just "innocently" naive.

ryanrybot - So what are your next plans for your game here?