I have started to make a game called Comodroid.

This name is just place holder name for the game. I don’t know if it will stay as that. Also I have already done few versions before I started to blog my experience. I am on the version 0.004 as I write this blog. Game has shooting, movement, enemies and boundaries aka map to roam around.

I am using Construct 2 program to make the game. It has light coding in it by determining the logic of events that happens. It is quick and easy way to make something that works, but I can see that there might be problem if you want to make something that is more complex than basic 2d game, but I do see it as good enough tool for me to use a make commodore 64 style of looking game. I wont go 100 % Commodore type of game other than in visuals. That is because I do not wish to start coding all it in basic and learn to make it that way at least not yet. Maybe later.

When I started to make this game I learned interesting things like you should have sprite and hitbox as a different object. That is because if the hitbox is size of the sprite it will make navigation problematic when there is zero space between solid object and player sprite. I also had to fiddle around with settings preventing player character from rotating when moving. Well only thing that I allowed to rotate is the eye as it moves. That is simple change of animation when it detects that player sprite is moving. I did not want it to rotate because it didn’t look good. I have also noticed that it looks weird if player or enemy sprites are one layer below item sprite. It just didn’t look right.

0.003 is a just a testing sandbox to see how enemies behave and if my stationary turret works well. It was good place to tweak the turrets flash to sync with the bullet. The triangle inside the walls is just there for me to test the enemies movement. I programmed it to turn to right every time it collides with a solid object. I noticed that it can lead to problems where it turns suddenly because there is two different objects that are defined as solid. The stock pattern as a background of the wall will be removed so that I can paste a texture I want top of it as other object so that I don’t need to spend time to program same behavior events on every texture.

0.004 version of the game I already made a map layout for the first map and I wanted to see how enemies and bullets of enemies and own behave in more complex area than small confined space. I notice that I have not programmed how enemy bullets behave when hitting the walls. That is why you can see a bullet I have moved to the margin suddenly fly past as the game resets. I also noticed that my seeker droid does not follow the player when it comes to its range that I defined. That needs to be fixed. The tracking camera that I added seems to follow without any problem and keeps player character on the middle of the screen.

These game versions are currently hosted by my friend and I hope that it is just a temporal solution. As I go on I will look if I can find something different where I can host these game files.

*Edit: I forgot to include the info that you can move with arrow keys and use space to shoot (controls might change I will inform if they do).

Links to the game:

version 0.003

version 0.004

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