Monday, May 13, 2013

Screaming Cubes!

Screaming Cubes


Screaming cubes is a prototype for a space sim game. It was originally made in 48 hours for the Ludum Dare 26 game competition, but I already expanded the game a bit and I plan to work on it more in my spare time.

Player controls his own small fighter drone (which behaves more like a rocket hovercraft then a real space ship, but the game is much more playable this way) and his huge and powerful but slow mother-ship which serves as a mobile base where player can fix and upgrade his ship. 

Currently the game takes place in a crater on an unknown planet littered with enemy bases and fighters. Destroying enemies is one way to get upgrades and ore and uranium needed by mother-ship for further upgrades and repairs. The other way is to select mining laser or cratering missiles and go search for the ore on the planet. When player get's bored with the current level, it's possible to leave the current location, return to orbital base and then select another mission. Game progress is currently saved ONLY on the orbit (so it can be played in the webplayer where saving huge amount of data for the level is not possible without creating a master server with account for each player).

There's a lot of things I'd like to add / change / improve in the game, currently the most important tasks are:
a) moving from the flat artificially closed terrain to a fully 3D asteroids with a few kilometers diameter
b) adding at least simple multiplayer, probably just a fight among two motherships on a planet.

And of course there are tons of small bugs, AI is just a bit above nonexistent etc...

Gameplay video
Current (1.1) web version (DROPBOX hosted)



Original 48 hours version (Windows standalone version)

Note, this post currently serves as a homepage for the game.

15 comments:

  1. Its a brilliant game Don't give up on it

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  2. Managed to "beat" (unlock all upgrades for drone ands mothership) in a little over 1.5 hours of playing... and then I kept playing! This game has a HUGE amount of potential; if you could flourish it out a bit (add backstory, improve AI, more upgrades), this game would rise through the ranks of internet gaming. I love it already, and can't wait to see your next update. Rock on, dude!

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  3. Fun until you get all the upgrades. there needs to be a harder setting than "Heavy Enemy Presence" Maybe there could be another level of ship, too, like a space station, and it would be way tougher than a mother-ship. There should be higher upgrade maxes, and more kinds of upgrades. for instance, mining speed, missile explosion damage/radius, blaster regen rate, etc. Since you have a decent A.I. program for drones, you could have purchasable helpers! You seem to have been planning something like that, when you kill yourself, it says "Friendly unit destroyed!" if you decide to further develop this game, maybe add a multiplayer function/version, this could be BIG.

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  4. I found a bug:
    When my ship gets blown up, my fault or not, it lags the game to death by continuously spawning blocks! This sounds like an easy thing to fix, though this may not be the case.

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  5. I love it! I haven't found much games that give me what I want. But this, this is just fantastic! Even though the game feels a little old, I still Love it!!
    But it looks like you, the creator of this outstanding game, stopped working on it. The last update was on 2013. This comment was typed on December 8th, 2015... 3:13. Don't think that all because you haven't updated earlier, people lost hope of this game. More than a handful of people still play this game. So please, it's not to late. UPDATE! 5/5..... Truly you know how much I admire this game.

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    Replies
    1. Well... It said 3:13 on my laptop.

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    2. ... I'm not sure when someone will see these comments... Including the developer. But I really like space games; such as this one. So, I really hope you, the developer comes back to this game. Oh yeah, it's 2016. Happy New Year! Though, I think it's a little too late for that. Whatever, see yeah... Who ever is reading these comments. I will come back though, and I have no idea when...

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    3. I'm back!!! Yeah... Just stopping by... To say hi, I guess... I'm not sure what to say. Well, today, wasn't a good day for me. First, I was planning to wake up early to play on my Brother's Xbox for Star Wars. The new one-Although, it isn't as good as the older one, I still wanted to play it.-But, I went to sleep at 10pm, though luckily, I had an alarm. I was aiming at 9am, but I woke up at 7am. So I went back to sleep. Woke up at 7:55am, 8:30am, then 10:35am... Just my luck eh? I got up walked through the house a bit all grumpy. Saw my sister watching on her phone, then I called to her, "what's up?" She replied with "Nothing much... Though, if you haven't noticed, the power's out." Yeah... Just my luck. You need power to go on a Xbox, if you don't know. I didn't say much but with a "thanks", and left while being bummed out.
      I ate breakfast, while messing with my little brother. I could tell he didn't like me much. But some day, I wish to change that. When I finished eating... I didn't really feel like doing much, just wanted to play Star Wars. So I decided to go to sleep, again... With no alarm on. That time, was at 11:46am I woke up feeling like crap for some reason. I saw my other brother, then asked him what the time was. He said it was about 3:30pm... This was not good for me, seeing how I missed half the day. I walked around the house again while being all grumpy... Again. I say my sister again along with my other sister. One of my sisters stared at me for a while. Then said "Power turned back 3 hours ago"... I didn't say anything but "yeah, thanks".
      What luck eh?
      After that, I grabbed my blankets and walked down stairs to, finally play Star Wars. After that, it was all good. And fun. So, what luck...
      Not sure how telling you how my day was has to do with this game... Just felt like Recapping my day into a comment on this site. Hope no one actually reads this. Then it would be kind of weird... Then again, I'm weird, everybody is weird.
      Yeah, so I hope someone, means the developer, comes back into the game. Love it. And, I guess I'm going to come back to this... Again, oh yeah, almost forgot. Yesterday, on Sunday, was Valentines day. So Happy Valentines Day!!
      A little late, again... See Ya.

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    4. Oh yeah, somewhere at the end of the 2nd paragraph, it says,
      "I say my sister again along with my other sister."
      I meant to say,
      I *saw* my sister again along with my other sister.

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  6. I'm back! I've done a little research. And by research I mean looking through the past updates that this site has had. So, the last update was at May 13, 2013... Two days away from my birthday... This update is also known as Screaming Cubes! Knowing this information, I have come to a conclusion that this site, is in fact, dead. I know, as tragic as it sounds, it's true.
    Well, if it's dead, then why wast your time making a bunch of comments you ask? Well, first off, it's not wasting if your spending. And secondly, I do in fact enjoy this game, even though some of the comments I make seem a little... Irrelevant. Seeing how it is dead... I probably won't expect anyone to reply, or read these comments... Or something. I'm actually wondering of this is the official site for the game. If it is then I guess I should do something about it. Maybe, I could contact the developer and pull him/her into the game once more... Unless the developer is dead... That would be bad. Weird thought.
    Anyways, see yeah later guys, to whoem ever might cross over these comments...

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    Replies
    1. I forgot that the developer is a guy...

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    2. he he... You know when I said I've done a little research? Right? Well, turns out, I kind of knew when the last update happened. According to my first comment. Don't judge me, I forget what I type sometimes... Whatever, see ya'

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  7. I'm back!! only because I remembered this for some reason.

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  8. I'm an unkown here? Huh, swear I've placed a surname somewhere here. Guess I'm mistaken then. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  9. What is this, a personal blog or something?

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