Zackary Morris Worked on overall game design, draw level functions, handy primitives (pythagorean theorem, move memory) lots of networking
Jason Sheu Did work on weapons, sprite draws, locator, enemy AI, sprite moves, was involved with all aspects of game engine
Mark Rovedo Worked on all the sounds, midi , and wav. Also worked on networking
Eric Whisler Worked on introduction screens, game menus, implented scrolling, scaling text, at tilted perspective.
Mark Chan Worked on all graphics for the game, level design, parts of menu screens. Also wrote game functions such as key routines, wall collisions.
We started out with an idea to do our version of Gauntlet, an overhead, shooting action game. We went beyond our intentions, and added different weapons for players, networking, deadlier enemies, enemy locator, large levels, and a great animated introduction screen. The object of the game is to seek out and destroy all alien life on the level. There is also a two player mode that can be used as death matches. Our first goal was to be able to implement the scrolling background, in all eight directions. Surprisingly we accomplished this major goal in a day. After the sprites were able to move around and attack enemies, we basically finished the game, and moved on to other objectives that we never thought of before. We implemented networking, enemy sensor, menu screens, and elaborate AI in the last couple of days of the project. We would like to continue with the project to add multiple levels, level editor, improved networking.
We first thought that a scrolling background would be the most challenging aspect. We finished this quickly by writing a helper function that clips a 16x16 pixel square and used that function in a loop that does the outer edges of the screen.The middle of the screen was filled with a trivial draw screen. Other challenging aspects was keeping track of the sprites. This done easily with a class data structure. Each sprite was held in a simple array of other structs of sprites. This allowed us to give unique properties to object that move on the screen such as position, movement speed, firing, health, etc. This made developement much easier to handle. The greatest challenge was implementing the networking. Our first attempt completely flooded the network, we had no idea that our broadcasts were disabling the building network. However we completed the 2-player networking, and minor adjustments are needed to allow greater number of players.
