Omega
I'm making some nice progress on the cell phone video game, now titled Omega. The first few tutorial panels read:
Bad news, trooper: Earth has been invaded, and all of our defenses have been wiped out. Humanity is just days from turning into alien chow.
We've got only one ace left up our sleeve: the Omega tank. Now here's the really bad news: you're our last qualified operator.
The Dolrikij invaders are tough and have technologies that we don't. But they're ultimately cowards, and that's what we're going to exploit.
What we need from you is a show of force: face them on their terms and defeat their best forces, and they'll flee. We hope.
You know this part already, but I'm supposed to remind you anyway. Your Omega tank has superb armor, which you can repair in the field. And it has shields to absorb energy-based attacks. But armor can be damaged, and shields deplete your power cells when they activate.
As an apology for the short and choppy phrasing, please remember that this text goes onto a tiny 240x160 cell phone display: I find brevity difficult in the best of times, and it's hard for me to convey a storyline in less than 150 words.
Some screenshots:
The menu system is complete, right down to the animated alien ships that fly towards the planet while you're looking at the main menu. For the game itself, the engine is finished and you can drive around the world and bump into obstacles--even jump short ones if your timing is good. But I don't have powerups working yet, or the baddies, or a plot. So there's still a lot left to go.
I've also whipped up a level editor, for use by beta testers:
The editor lets you place obstacles, baddies, generators, powerups and whatever in little playable levels. Beta testers will be able to build their own levels, upload them to the phone to test them, and mail me any completed level files so that I can put them into the final game. Fun stuff.
Bad news, trooper: Earth has been invaded, and all of our defenses have been wiped out. Humanity is just days from turning into alien chow.
We've got only one ace left up our sleeve: the Omega tank. Now here's the really bad news: you're our last qualified operator.
The Dolrikij invaders are tough and have technologies that we don't. But they're ultimately cowards, and that's what we're going to exploit.
What we need from you is a show of force: face them on their terms and defeat their best forces, and they'll flee. We hope.
You know this part already, but I'm supposed to remind you anyway. Your Omega tank has superb armor, which you can repair in the field. And it has shields to absorb energy-based attacks. But armor can be damaged, and shields deplete your power cells when they activate.
As an apology for the short and choppy phrasing, please remember that this text goes onto a tiny 240x160 cell phone display: I find brevity difficult in the best of times, and it's hard for me to convey a storyline in less than 150 words.
Some screenshots:
The menu system is complete, right down to the animated alien ships that fly towards the planet while you're looking at the main menu. For the game itself, the engine is finished and you can drive around the world and bump into obstacles--even jump short ones if your timing is good. But I don't have powerups working yet, or the baddies, or a plot. So there's still a lot left to go.
I've also whipped up a level editor, for use by beta testers:
The editor lets you place obstacles, baddies, generators, powerups and whatever in little playable levels. Beta testers will be able to build their own levels, upload them to the phone to test them, and mail me any completed level files so that I can put them into the final game. Fun stuff.