Here is some code I have used in the production of my game that allows me to shoot in 4 directions although one draw back it has is it only allows the player to shoot in the direction they are moving but it allows for me to have a control scheme that is faithful to the GBA but if I find a way to add controls for the player to turn and move any direction whilst shooting that stays faithful to the control scheme of the GBA I will use it.
Here is the new system of movement that I have decided to use for my game as it is a style of movement that is possible for the GBA but also allows for the player to shoot and move in separate directions and I feel that it makes the game feel a lot better to control than it did with the old scheme that was used.
After I added a way for the player to move around I decided to add an enemy. to make the enemy I gave a sprite line of sight and the move to behaviour so I could make the enemy move towards the player. Then I added health for it and made it become destroyed if the health reached zero or below. I then made the enemy able to shoot when they had line of sight for the player although when I first implemented this the enemy would fire a constant stream of bullets to fix this I added a condition to the piece of code that put a time limit on how frequently the enemy could fire.
When I was making the second enemy type I wanted them to fire in bursts to do this I had to set up an event for the system that every 1.5 seconds for the enemy to fire its bullet three times each spaced equally with 0.1 second intervals.
Here is the way I made a system were the player is able to switch between weapons that they find. To do this I made a global variable were each value was attached for example I attached the value of one to the assault rifle which is set from the start as the player will start with this weapon but when the player picks up the plasma rifle it is set to 2 which enables the code to spawn the plasma instead of the assault rifle bullet.
I then created the Health and Shields system to make this work I had to create 3 global variables one for the health, one for the shield and a variable that switches between the two when it detects they have either been restored or depleted. I then created the system that restores the shields after three seconds when they have been broken.
I then created grenades to make these work I created a global variable for the amount of grenades that the player spawns with and subtracting from this each time a grenade is thrown but after testing grenades in the game I realised that they would be thrown even when the player holds down right click which is somthing they have to do to pick up a weapon and I cannot bind them to a different button whilst still keeping the same amount of controls as the console that I am demaking this game for.
Here is the player sprite when creating this I looked to my planning and images of the character to create this and I feel I have done quite a good job at portraying the character from this top down angle and making it quite distinct. I also had to make a few variations of this sprite holding the different weapons that the player can pick up in the game.
Here is an enemy sprite that I have made for the game when creating this sprite I looked a lot at my planning and stuck pretty closely to how I had planned out for this sprite to look although there were some things I did end up changing such as the placement of the head and how the plasma rifle looked in the enemies hand.
Here is the sprite that I have made for one of the other types of enemies that I have in my game whilst creating this sprite I looked at the planning that I had made for it and changed it quite a bit as it was to small of a sprite for the game which is an issue that I fixed whilst making the final version of the sprite for the game.
Here is the sprite that I have made for one of the weapon pick ups in my game I gave it a simple animation were a white line runs across it to draw the players attention to it.
Here is another sprite I have made for another of the weapon pick ups which has a similar animation to the last weapon pick up that I made were a white line runs across it to help draw the players attention to it.
Here is a sprite that I have made for the door in the game which is quite simple as it is just a rectangle with some blue detail on it although it is simple it works well for the purpose I want to use it for which is a simple door.
Here is another sprite that I have made it is of an environmental piece and cover for the player to hide behind I feel it does a good job at this as it only needs to be simple.
I then added audio to the game when creating the audio for the game I took sound effects from a few different halo games although I tried to keep the sound effects to be from halo reach although if I could not find the exact one I would use sound effects from other halo games such as for the enemies death sounds as they are sounds from Halo CE.
Youtu.be. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/wEKofq_xTT0> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
To create the assault rifle sound for the game I took the sound from this video and shortened it in audacity so it was just one shot sound from the gun and set it to play every 0.2 seconds when the player fired the assault rifle in the game which created the effect of it creating the sound of the fully automatic rifle. I feel that this sound does a good job at creating the same effect as the assault rifle from the original game.
Youtu.be. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/TNoWHwyxZyg> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
To create the magnum sound for the game I took the sound from this video and shortened it so that it was only one shot from the gun and set it to play whenever the player fired the magnum. I feel that this sound does a good job at creating the same effect as the magnum from the original game.
Youtu.be. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/m-gN2epQPQE> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
To create the sound for the plasma rifle I had to compromise as the only sound I could source for it was a fan made one although I feel that this sound was a good fit for the game as it was quite close to the sound I wanted so I put it into audacity and cut it down so it was only fired once and put it into the game. I made it work by by having the sound play whenever the plasma rifle is fired. I feel that this sound does a good job at creating the same effect as the plasma rifle from the original game even though I did have to make a compromise.
Youtu.be. 2014. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/_CZCGOZSzz4> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
To create the sound for the shield I sourced a sound of the shield recharging and cut it into two sections these were the initial beeping for once the players shields had depleted. and the recharging sound for when they are restored to make these sounds work I had to create a system for the triggers for this
Youtu.be. 2016. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/bywbnEBx7xI> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
To create the sound for the grunts death I had to compromise as I could only sounds for the grunt I could source were from halo CE so I put the audio from this video into audacity and cut it down so that it only included the sounds that I need for the game to get this sound to work in the game was very simple as I made it play every time a grunt enemy is destroyed. I feel that this sound does a good job at creating the same effect as the grunt from the original game even though I did have to make a compromise and use a sound from a different game in the series.
Youtu.be. 2015. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/eYD4VuNAAoM> [Accessed 11 March 2022].
The situation for this sound was very similar to that of the death sound for the grunt as I was not able to find the sound from the game I wanted so I had to source the sound from elsewhere and trim the clip down to the sound I wanted in audacity. to put this in the game I had to have this clip play when the two types of elite enemies in my game are destroyed. I feel that this sound does a good job at creating the same effect as the elite from the original game even though I did have to make a compromise and use a sound from a different game in the series.
Player feedback:
After having my game to a somewhat complete state I had a session were I let people play the game and give feedback I got some criticism on the game one such criticism was that some people found the games controls awkward as they didn’t like the way that Q and E were used as the turning controls and would have preferred mouse to control this action although I feel that this would not suit the control methods available on the GBA although I feel I could add it as an option for players that want it if I have enough time left over at the end of the project.
During the player feedback session I got a few complaints about bugs people had found in the game one of these bugs being that the player can sometimes spawn with the weapon they just had although I have tried many times to get this to happen I cannot recreate it if I find out how to fix this issue I will if I have time.
During this player feedback session I also found out what people do like about the game one such example of this would be what people thought about the graphics as a lot of people thought that the graphics were good so I know that I have done a good job in this area of the game.
Another thing that people found enjoyable about the game In the responses is that people thought that the game has adapted halo gameplay into a top down form quite well which helps me to know that there is not much else I need to change about the gameplay of the game.
I feel that having a player feedback session has helped me as it has given me the opportunity to find out what other people think about the game and what things I need to add and change about the game as well as helping me to find any bugs or issues that the game may have as well as giving me the opportunity to look at what people think I have done well and what people enjoy about the game so far.
Doug's Game Blog 