http://www.byond.com/games/Ter13/DawnCasterInfestation
So, Since 2014, I've learned a LOT about how BYOND works internally. I've also gotten a ton better at programming, mathematics, pixel art, and level design. With 511 coming, I can fix some problems that make dawncaster non-viable, like the lack of controller support, the appearance churn generated by the render update loop (560+ churns 20 times a second is a LOT to ask of the engine.), etc. I know how to optimize a lot of the trig the game does using BSP now, and I've got some ideas for possibly improving the raycasting algorithm in general.
Where I continuously fail though is in actual game design. As in, designing playable content. Dawncaster was made in 36 hours. The minute I was done with the hard systems and had a few demonstrable enemy types and I'd exhausted my ideas for how to flesh out the systems I'd designed into content, I struggled to keep interest in the project long enough to finish my 48 hour development period.
I've had a lot of thoughts about revisiting dawncaster with an eye for what I've learned since.
One of the things that I've consistently attempted to explore is floor and ceiling casting, but given BYOND's limitations it's just not possible. Angled, curved, and non-tile-bound walls are entirely possible though with a little bit of work.
I have ideas for how to make the engine give a better play experience. I just have no idea how to market a game that runs at a 320x240 resolution and basically can achieve nothing more complex graphically than 1992's Wolfenstein.
Because of the way BYOND works internally and a number of failings on the side of the world-to-world communication tools, single-player is pretty much the only way to pull it off. I can't really do multiplayer with Dawncaster without writing the entire 3D rendering process in Javascript that's IE compatible. So anything multiplayer using two or more first-person clients is out.
Anybody got any ideas for how to proceed when my time with Epoch is up? Do you think the gameplay could even be made into something interesting enough to justify a modern gamer shelling out $5 to play?
ID:2083417
 May 12 2016, 11:36 pm
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1 minute into Dawncaster, I really wished it was controlled with the mouse as well as the keyboard.
Perhaps right click each half of the screen would control turning like E and Q do, that's probably the thing I desired the most, this way I could control my movement and my aim at same time. I don't know whether left click does anything later in game like using items or levers but left click fire would be the more obvious suggestion. Getting the controls right is important, if I don't feel comfortable moving in a game, I don't play the game. I didn't experience any performance issues, sure behind scenes it could be horrible but my PC feels that, not me. Single player is a lot more forgiving on that front. You could optimize and improve and you're most likely most motivated on that, I would be. As for the content, I wouldn't try and re-make Wolfenstein. The raycasting or monsters don't even have to be the main feature this game has to offer. I don't really know how much fun I will have repeatedly shooting monsters with spacebar, I was really really young when my older brothers played Wolfenstein, back then it looked exciting but in modern times, I wouldn't enjoy that content in actual 3D and if I wanted to play Wolfenstein, I'd pay 5 dollars on steam and play it. Nostalgia has worth but it doesn't have to be the main selling point, I'm thinking you could add puzzles or riddles to solve or perhaps switching raycasting off and allowing them to see the top-down part creating 2 different gameplays, rotating the two. And then I guess, there's the more obvious, more weapons, more monsters, more gore & blood, rocket launchers to smash through certain walls because why not. In serious-ness though, I suppose there should be some sort of progress going on (upgrading their weapons / getting new weapons helps that). Perhaps a map like in Doom where they travel from one dungeon to the other (Maybe even add a shop on that map where they can buy things in between dungeons). You could also have a scoreboard per level/dungeon, scoreboards always help (inb4 your game gets popular and the scoreboard is filled with crazy scores from cheaters). I'm sure there's a lot you can already improve as you mentioned and as a BYONDer it's exciting to see what you'll accomplish, you'll probably come up with a ton of creative ideas as work on it. | |
single-player is pretty much the only way to pull it off. Guess pvp is out :C. Give players an option in the main menu screen to create dungeons, upload it to a server, and other players can browse through that server select a dungeon map another player created, download it, and then play it :D. (Also with the ability to write a a summary of the map they created so i can write a story for each of my maps >:]) So anything multiplayer using two or more first-person clients is out. :O! What if you had 1 player playing as the badass in the first person, and another player looking at a map where different colored dots on the map or different icons represent different uhh mobs? (Wink wink hint hint nudge nudge) And you the player looking at the map can direct traffic :l. Aka control enemy monsters by clicking the target they want to control (which would mean they are now targeted) and then clicking on an area on the map, and the monster would monster/enemy will move there. Kind of like mixing an rts with a fps(Which has been one of my dreams for several years now... except with boats oceans and pirates :P) In serious-ness though, I suppose there should be some sort of progress going on (upgrading their weapons / getting new weapons helps that). Well you can give it an rpg like thing where you kill stuff you level up you gain a perk point you put a perk point into a perk tree and unlock passives like when you get a kill movement speed is increase or after taking damage health begins to regen or something ;). You could also have a scoreboard per level/dungeon, scoreboards always help (inb4 your game gets popular and the scoreboard is filled with crazy scores from cheaters). yes >:) Do you think the gameplay could even be made into something interesting enough to justify a modern gamer shelling out $5 to play? Ability to pay for weapon skins, and reload animations. | |
1 minute into Dawncaster, I really wished it was controlled with the mouse as well as the keyboard. I looked into that for a while. I actually had a demo running where I'd hijacked Dreamseeker and gotten mouse-locking working, but unfortunately it was pretty ugly presentation-wise. Best bet is controller support. BYOND doesn't have the feature set to actually deal with the mouse at any satisfactory level like you'd expect from an FPS. I think, either Dawncaster would have to live in another engine to be viable, or it would have to you know, not be a first person game. And what you've said in this thread is pretty much a major indication that this is the case. Maybe I can investigate something more like Nuclear Throne when I'm done picking at Epoch. | |
Looks like it would be mayhem. Mayhem == fun.
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Finally noticed this thread and I have been doing research dealing with WebGL. Unfortunately, I have found some interesting problems when it comes to initialization. If you try loading so much ahead of time, it sometimes doesn't load properly.
Not as noticeable on Google Chrome, but definitely a real problem on Mozilla Firefox. On Internet Explorer and Edge, it doesn't even work at all. If you want, I can make the code available to the current version of the WebGL Support Library (which could benefit raycasting). Of course, one could also use a 2D Canvas instead for raycasting. That might be a better solution for the time being than WebGL. | |
I disagree with Rotem. I like that there's no mouse support. Reminds me of the games it's obviously modeled after.
I wouldn't be so quick to discard this idea, Ter. I think it has a lot of potential, even if it is a bit of a niche idea. Add a few RPG elements like other people have suggested and I think it'd be a cool modern-ish twist on a long-neglected classic genre. | |
All joking aside, I'll play around with Dawncaster tonight and get a feel for the game before making any suggestions via pager -- I'm sure something will spark.