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48 Hour Challenge #1 - GooberMan - Challenger #3

Submitted by GooberMan on

In one of my rare appearances on Sumea these days, I had a look at the main page about an hour ago and discovered that there's a 48 hour programming challenge on this weekend. I have about 28 hours to come up with a game design, and 48 hours to implement it. This is going to be fun :)

Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:18 AMPermalink

I'm thinking of doing an Impossible Mission clone. Already got quite a few ideas on how to attack it technically. The best part though - programmer art robots! :P

Submitted by redwyre on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:27 AMPermalink

Attack it from behind while it's not looking. That's my plan.

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 3:28 AMPermalink

Stay for a while... Stay forever!

Submitted by MattD on Sat, 20/03/04 - 4:09 AMPermalink

dont forget the bug in the last level that wont let you finish it

impossible indeed! :P

Matt D

Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 6:55 AMPermalink

Well, I knew the design of the game wasn't going to be simple, but I didn't imagine I'd come up with all this! 48 hours, hey? Here's hoping... When I said Impossible Mission clone, I took it quite literally even to the point of ripping off the basic story :P

The basic idea is that an evil person has stolen 16 animals from 8 endangered species (male and female from each). Being an evil person, he has locked them up in cages in his complex. To avoid having everything in an easy-for-intruders-to-get location, he has cut up the key cards for the cages in to four pieces each and hidden them in his complex. To avoid people looking for them, he turned on security in the form of robots. The player starts off inside the complex. Entering the complex, however, has started a timer for a Doomsday device (yes, think Dr Strangeglove). Six hours and it goes boom. Release the animals from the 8 endangered species, and find the ninth key card (also cut up) that unlocks the evil guy's control centre to disable the Doomsday device.

The game itself:

Player:
LEFT and RIGHT arrow - walk left and right
SPACE - jump
UP arrow - search Searchable
UP and DOWN arrow - move lift up and down

World:
Linear world with up to eight Pylons and up to seven Connecting Lifts

Connecting Lifts:
In between each pylon, provides a means for accessing different rooms
Walkways to rooms based on pylon layout

Walkway:
Connects Connecting Lifts to Rooms via Entry

Pylon:
up to eight Rooms a pylon

Rooms: (40 x 30 tiles)
Entry defined as side, tile
Platform defined as start and end tile
Robot defined as behaviour, tile, patrol start and end tile
Searchable defined as tile, type, search time
Lift defined as tile waypoints, lifts available on waypoints
Computer defined as tile
Any null space at the bottom of a Room is lethal to the player

Entry:
Player appears at Entry corresponding to Walkway
Walking in to Entry returns player to Walkway

Platform:
A solid platform from start tile to end tile that Player and Robot can traverse

Robot:
The enemy of the game, kills Player on contact
Moves between patrol start and end tile depending on behaviour
Behaviour 1: sits still and looks dangerous
Behaviour 2: sits still and shoots Laser when player comes in range
Behaviour 3: sits still, shoots Laser for 3 seconds in one direction, pauses for one second, turns, pauses for one second, repeat
Behaviour 4: moves to start patrol tile, shoots laser for 3 seconds, turns, moves to end patrol tile, shoots laser for 3 seconds, turns, repeat
Behaviour 5: moves to start patrol tile, turns, moves to end patrol tile, turns, repeat. speeds up when player is in its sight

Laser:
Beam of pure energy, kills Player on contact

Searchable:
A common household item
Player presses and holds up to search for a specified amount of time
Once search is complete, Reward given (selected at random at start of game)

Reward:
Reward 1: Key card pieces to cages (36 in total)
Reward 2: Suspend robots for limited time (5% of remaining total items in game)
Reward 3: Reset room to original state (5% of remaining total items in game)
Reward 4: NOTHING

Key Card Pieces:
Pieces rotated and coloured at random. 4 pieces make a complete card

Lift:
Moves up and down between waypoints
More than one lift can be on a set of waypoints

Computer:
Use Reward 2 and 3 at a computer

Completing the game:
Collect 36 cage keys and search Cages in less than six hours

Dieing:
Death results in 10 minutes being taken off the time limit

Cages:
A special Searchable that only activates once 36 Key Card Pieces are collected and assembled

Assembling Card Keys:
If I can get this far in 48 hours, I'd be going EXTREMELY well :)
A puzzle game
Rotate and colour 4 pieces so that each match up perfectly to form a complete piece

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 8:57 AMPermalink

Slightly more ambitious than my project. Good luck to you.

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:04 PMPermalink

Wooo.. I'm so excited I'm shaking! That or I'm overdosing on caffeine. Either way I'm ready!

Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 3:17 PMPermalink

After 3 hours, I got my program set up (Direct3D, DirectInput) and the rendering system working. I'm now working on creating the rooms, and then after that I'll get a guy running around, and then after that I'll get robots happening.

Submitted by GooberMan on Sun, 21/03/04 - 12:39 AMPermalink

Loading in rooms from a text file.

Robots have basic patrol functionality.

I've done more than I thought I would have in this time.

Submitted by GooberMan on Sun, 21/03/04 - 11:43 AMPermalink

After almost 24 hours, I've gotten done:

Player and basic (left/right/jump) movement
Loading of rooms from text files
Robots with definable patrol paths in the room file
Platforms from one point to another
Player death
The best programmer art you'll ever see. An appropriate title for this game would be "DISTORTED STICK FIGURE MAN AND THE ATTACK OF THE AUTOMATED SALT SHAKERS OF HORRIBLE DOOM"

I doubt I'm going to get out to the world to make the lifts and pylons, so I'm going to do the room lifts and searchables and make some rooms and have a random room selector when you exit.

Submitted by Kane on Mon, 22/03/04 - 9:26 PMPermalink

hey Gooberman...great game!

love those programmer graphics!

are those "salt shakers' meant to look like Dalik's?[:D]

Submitted by TheBigJ on Mon, 22/03/04 - 11:22 PMPermalink

Good work. Brought back memories of my C64..

Submitted by souri on Tue, 23/03/04 - 3:23 AMPermalink

I agree! Either I've lost my 'l337 Impossible Mission skills, or this game requires some extreme pin-point accurate jumping skills [:)] There are a few objects I have no idea how to search without getting killed - damn it [:)].. The scream of death = classic.

Great work. It felt pretty much identical to Impossible Mission (apart from the visuals, but if you had level dsigners and artists to do the content, I'm sure it would hold up to the original!), and you did it in 48 hours!

Submitted by GooberMan on Tue, 23/03/04 - 3:50 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by redwyre

It's too hard!

Stay a while! Staaaaaaaaaay FOREVER!!!!!!

quote:Originally posted by redwyre

It felt pretty much identical to Impossible Mission

w00t :)

Hint: you don't need to be completely standing on a walkway to be standing on it. You can hang off the edges. Once you're completely off the walkway though, it's fall time.

Submitted by GooberMan on Tue, 23/03/04 - 7:47 AMPermalink

If you think the game really is too hard, here's a complete solution for every single room (yup, that's right, all four of them).

Room completions are based on the player starting from the left side, however you can adapt these strategies if you come in from the right side.

Room 1:

Jump over the robot coming towards you and search the bookcase on the far right side. You can search it completely before the robot gets back to you. Go up to the top of the room and time your descent down the middle lift so you don't get zapped. Search those items. Go back up to the top and come back down on the lift you came up on. Now the fun part. You need to go backward and forward from side to side along the bottom getting the robot just above you to follow you to the edge of the walkway he's on. Once there, speed to the opposite side, go up the lift, search the TV there until the robot is right close, and go back down and repeat. You'll eventually get both TV's fully searched. Exit out the right.

Room 2:

Go up the lift in the middle of the room and search the two bookcases, dodging the robot as it does its patrol. Go down the lift on the right hand side of the screen. When the robot's laser isn't covering the picture down there, position yourself slightly over the gap and start searching the picture, making sure to get out of the way of the robot once it starts to turn. Repeat until it's searched. Go up as far as the right hand lift will go, search the fridge, jump off the edge to get across to the TV and lift on the left side of the room. Search the TV. Time your ascent on the lift so that you don't get zapped by the robot. Exit the room to the right.

Room 3:

This room is pure timing. Search the items and be careful to avoid the robots as they come for you. Exit to the right once all items are searched.

Room 4:

Go up the lift to the picture. Search the picture. Wait for the robot to the below and left of you to move to the elevator and fire his laser. Once the laser has finished, jump. You'll make it over and avoid the robot. Go up the lift and search the TV on the way up. Jump over the gap and search the bookcase. Go down the lift next to the bookcase and search the TV on the next floor down. Time going down to the next floor so you don't get zapped by the robot and search the fridge. You can now proceed to exit out the right side and go all the way back to room 1!

Posted by GooberMan on

In one of my rare appearances on Sumea these days, I had a look at the main page about an hour ago and discovered that there's a 48 hour programming challenge on this weekend. I have about 28 hours to come up with a game design, and 48 hours to implement it. This is going to be fun :)


Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:18 AMPermalink

I'm thinking of doing an Impossible Mission clone. Already got quite a few ideas on how to attack it technically. The best part though - programmer art robots! :P

Submitted by redwyre on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:27 AMPermalink

Attack it from behind while it's not looking. That's my plan.

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 3:28 AMPermalink

Stay for a while... Stay forever!

Submitted by MattD on Sat, 20/03/04 - 4:09 AMPermalink

dont forget the bug in the last level that wont let you finish it

impossible indeed! :P

Matt D

Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 6:55 AMPermalink

Well, I knew the design of the game wasn't going to be simple, but I didn't imagine I'd come up with all this! 48 hours, hey? Here's hoping... When I said Impossible Mission clone, I took it quite literally even to the point of ripping off the basic story :P

The basic idea is that an evil person has stolen 16 animals from 8 endangered species (male and female from each). Being an evil person, he has locked them up in cages in his complex. To avoid having everything in an easy-for-intruders-to-get location, he has cut up the key cards for the cages in to four pieces each and hidden them in his complex. To avoid people looking for them, he turned on security in the form of robots. The player starts off inside the complex. Entering the complex, however, has started a timer for a Doomsday device (yes, think Dr Strangeglove). Six hours and it goes boom. Release the animals from the 8 endangered species, and find the ninth key card (also cut up) that unlocks the evil guy's control centre to disable the Doomsday device.

The game itself:

Player:
LEFT and RIGHT arrow - walk left and right
SPACE - jump
UP arrow - search Searchable
UP and DOWN arrow - move lift up and down

World:
Linear world with up to eight Pylons and up to seven Connecting Lifts

Connecting Lifts:
In between each pylon, provides a means for accessing different rooms
Walkways to rooms based on pylon layout

Walkway:
Connects Connecting Lifts to Rooms via Entry

Pylon:
up to eight Rooms a pylon

Rooms: (40 x 30 tiles)
Entry defined as side, tile
Platform defined as start and end tile
Robot defined as behaviour, tile, patrol start and end tile
Searchable defined as tile, type, search time
Lift defined as tile waypoints, lifts available on waypoints
Computer defined as tile
Any null space at the bottom of a Room is lethal to the player

Entry:
Player appears at Entry corresponding to Walkway
Walking in to Entry returns player to Walkway

Platform:
A solid platform from start tile to end tile that Player and Robot can traverse

Robot:
The enemy of the game, kills Player on contact
Moves between patrol start and end tile depending on behaviour
Behaviour 1: sits still and looks dangerous
Behaviour 2: sits still and shoots Laser when player comes in range
Behaviour 3: sits still, shoots Laser for 3 seconds in one direction, pauses for one second, turns, pauses for one second, repeat
Behaviour 4: moves to start patrol tile, shoots laser for 3 seconds, turns, moves to end patrol tile, shoots laser for 3 seconds, turns, repeat
Behaviour 5: moves to start patrol tile, turns, moves to end patrol tile, turns, repeat. speeds up when player is in its sight

Laser:
Beam of pure energy, kills Player on contact

Searchable:
A common household item
Player presses and holds up to search for a specified amount of time
Once search is complete, Reward given (selected at random at start of game)

Reward:
Reward 1: Key card pieces to cages (36 in total)
Reward 2: Suspend robots for limited time (5% of remaining total items in game)
Reward 3: Reset room to original state (5% of remaining total items in game)
Reward 4: NOTHING

Key Card Pieces:
Pieces rotated and coloured at random. 4 pieces make a complete card

Lift:
Moves up and down between waypoints
More than one lift can be on a set of waypoints

Computer:
Use Reward 2 and 3 at a computer

Completing the game:
Collect 36 cage keys and search Cages in less than six hours

Dieing:
Death results in 10 minutes being taken off the time limit

Cages:
A special Searchable that only activates once 36 Key Card Pieces are collected and assembled

Assembling Card Keys:
If I can get this far in 48 hours, I'd be going EXTREMELY well :)
A puzzle game
Rotate and colour 4 pieces so that each match up perfectly to form a complete piece

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 8:57 AMPermalink

Slightly more ambitious than my project. Good luck to you.

Submitted by TheBigJ on Sat, 20/03/04 - 12:04 PMPermalink

Wooo.. I'm so excited I'm shaking! That or I'm overdosing on caffeine. Either way I'm ready!

Submitted by GooberMan on Sat, 20/03/04 - 3:17 PMPermalink

After 3 hours, I got my program set up (Direct3D, DirectInput) and the rendering system working. I'm now working on creating the rooms, and then after that I'll get a guy running around, and then after that I'll get robots happening.

Submitted by GooberMan on Sun, 21/03/04 - 12:39 AMPermalink

Loading in rooms from a text file.

Robots have basic patrol functionality.

I've done more than I thought I would have in this time.

Submitted by GooberMan on Sun, 21/03/04 - 11:43 AMPermalink

After almost 24 hours, I've gotten done:

Player and basic (left/right/jump) movement
Loading of rooms from text files
Robots with definable patrol paths in the room file
Platforms from one point to another
Player death
The best programmer art you'll ever see. An appropriate title for this game would be "DISTORTED STICK FIGURE MAN AND THE ATTACK OF THE AUTOMATED SALT SHAKERS OF HORRIBLE DOOM"

I doubt I'm going to get out to the world to make the lifts and pylons, so I'm going to do the room lifts and searchables and make some rooms and have a random room selector when you exit.

Submitted by Kane on Mon, 22/03/04 - 9:26 PMPermalink

hey Gooberman...great game!

love those programmer graphics!

are those "salt shakers' meant to look like Dalik's?[:D]

Submitted by TheBigJ on Mon, 22/03/04 - 11:22 PMPermalink

Good work. Brought back memories of my C64..

Submitted by souri on Tue, 23/03/04 - 3:23 AMPermalink

I agree! Either I've lost my 'l337 Impossible Mission skills, or this game requires some extreme pin-point accurate jumping skills [:)] There are a few objects I have no idea how to search without getting killed - damn it [:)].. The scream of death = classic.

Great work. It felt pretty much identical to Impossible Mission (apart from the visuals, but if you had level dsigners and artists to do the content, I'm sure it would hold up to the original!), and you did it in 48 hours!

Submitted by GooberMan on Tue, 23/03/04 - 3:50 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by redwyre

It's too hard!

Stay a while! Staaaaaaaaaay FOREVER!!!!!!

quote:Originally posted by redwyre

It felt pretty much identical to Impossible Mission

w00t :)

Hint: you don't need to be completely standing on a walkway to be standing on it. You can hang off the edges. Once you're completely off the walkway though, it's fall time.

Submitted by GooberMan on Tue, 23/03/04 - 7:47 AMPermalink

If you think the game really is too hard, here's a complete solution for every single room (yup, that's right, all four of them).

Room completions are based on the player starting from the left side, however you can adapt these strategies if you come in from the right side.

Room 1:

Jump over the robot coming towards you and search the bookcase on the far right side. You can search it completely before the robot gets back to you. Go up to the top of the room and time your descent down the middle lift so you don't get zapped. Search those items. Go back up to the top and come back down on the lift you came up on. Now the fun part. You need to go backward and forward from side to side along the bottom getting the robot just above you to follow you to the edge of the walkway he's on. Once there, speed to the opposite side, go up the lift, search the TV there until the robot is right close, and go back down and repeat. You'll eventually get both TV's fully searched. Exit out the right.

Room 2:

Go up the lift in the middle of the room and search the two bookcases, dodging the robot as it does its patrol. Go down the lift on the right hand side of the screen. When the robot's laser isn't covering the picture down there, position yourself slightly over the gap and start searching the picture, making sure to get out of the way of the robot once it starts to turn. Repeat until it's searched. Go up as far as the right hand lift will go, search the fridge, jump off the edge to get across to the TV and lift on the left side of the room. Search the TV. Time your ascent on the lift so that you don't get zapped by the robot. Exit the room to the right.

Room 3:

This room is pure timing. Search the items and be careful to avoid the robots as they come for you. Exit to the right once all items are searched.

Room 4:

Go up the lift to the picture. Search the picture. Wait for the robot to the below and left of you to move to the elevator and fire his laser. Once the laser has finished, jump. You'll make it over and avoid the robot. Go up the lift and search the TV on the way up. Jump over the gap and search the bookcase. Go down the lift next to the bookcase and search the TV on the next floor down. Time going down to the next floor so you don't get zapped by the robot and search the fridge. You can now proceed to exit out the right side and go all the way back to room 1!