Strike Eagle v 0.7

In this version, the take off sequence and initial gameplay has been created.  The arrow keys are the basic flight controls.  Music has also been replaced with original music pieces – so I no longer infringe on poor Mr. Loggin’s music.

Ironically, after listening to “Danger Zone” so many times during development, I started busting out my old J-Rock CDs, including the first CD I ever bought, “Bubblegum Crisis Complete Vocal Collection 1.”

The 3D animation isn’t as smooth as I’d like it to be, but once I start using the smooth option for FreeSpin3D, the performance degrades drastically.  So to keep the game moving at a fast pace, I am forced to keep it on the low quality option for the sake of gameplay.  This is one considerable cut back that I wasn’t anticipating.  Most people would not notice it in the final product.  But here is one first major design compromise that I’ve needed to make.

Also, I used a number of animation cheats during the take-off sequence to draw the audience eye in a certain way to give the illusion of a take off sequence.  Not to mention the cheesy lens flare I threw in for fun and effect.

Next up, I will complete the game with a landing sequence, game end screen, and entry to the Leaderboard submission stub.

That will give me leeway into creating enemies to destroy from the take-off to the landing to score some points!

Check it out!

So far, I’ve spent about 60-80 hours working on the project and I appear to be on schedule to be ready in 3 weeks. Game development has been going smooth, even with learning the FreeSpin3D API. I think it is a pretty powerful tool that can be utilized in a number of Flash games and I look forward to using it again.

I’ve also been posting my iterative builds in private. Once the game is published and out for judging, I will be releasing all the iteration builds that I’ve made. So far, I’m on iteration 7 with iteration 1 and 2 being false starts needing a complete wipe of the Flash file.

One thing I’m noticing is that my main Document class is getting bloated. I’ve been utilizing some Object-Oriented techniques to create Managers for the various objects the game is handling, but I’ve yet to come up with a good way of creating a “Scene” Manager. I have many scenes in the movie – each with their own buttons.

Unfortunately I have been putting all the various event handlers onto the main Document class. There should be a best practice somewhere of organizing buttons and events per scene rather than creating a bunch of public functions off the Document class.

Once these next two contests are over, I’ll definitely be sure to grab a book on best practices and design patterns for ActionScript 3.0.

Strike Eagle v 0.6

It’s a tad cliche, but it works for a simple “shoot ‘em up” game. The briefing will be made longer at a later date. I’m going to add information about the controls of the game once they are set and have the 3D models display how it works. I’ve also added a bunch of interface sound effects as well.

Next – the actual gameplay. Then I’ll come back and revisit the briefing.

Check it out!