Sunday, March 24, 2013

Solar Sojourn - The Design

Earlier this year, I mentioned that I would be creating a game centered around dynamically generated terrain for the coursework for one of my modules. I planned to build on my scene created for last semester's DirectX module, which consisted of a ship flying around the solar system. I planned to allow the user to land on specific planets and explore them.

I've decided to modify and simplify that idea a bit. Instead of freely flying around space, the user will simply select a planet from a menu (though I hope it will be a graphically beautiful menu, showing the planets rotating around the sun in space). The main gameplay will be on the planet. I've decided on a Star Fox style shoot-em-up, where a series of enemies attack the player. Like Star Fox, it will essentially be a rails shooter where the player only has freedom of movement in a limited plane that is constantly moving forward.

Each planet will be a different level. Levels will be fairly simple, with the ground and scenery dynamically generated while the enemies and collectibles will be planned out. Each planet will have different atmosphere and gravity settings, with unique hazards to each. For example, some planets will have high winds or a corrosive atmosphere, or a deadly sunrise.

I still have quite a lot of work to do for this project, and I'm still in the early planning stages now. I'll post updates here as I progress. Look forward to it!

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