Category Archives: Computer Games

Release: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.9

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

Only a day late. I hope no one passed out from holding their breath. Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.9 [3.45] Due to extensive demand, only one digital copy per person allowed!

In this version:

  1. Added a new special location to the Campaign mode which after a successful visit gives your production efficiency a boost.
  2. The heuristics for fleet movements in Campaign mode have been tweaked. E.g. planets with low production draw additional fleets to be converted into factories to boost their production.
  3. More Enemy appearances are now read from PNG-files as well as some wave-spesific attributes are read from assets-file. This means that everything is new and terrible again!

Release: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.8

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

I suppose you suspected this: A new version of Goldwingu is out now! Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.8 (3.45MB).

In this version:

  1. Added a settings page for Campaign mode, where the number of enemy, neutral and own planets can be set.
  2. Added a new non-planetary location-type in Campaign mode. After successful visit it rewards the player with an upgrade.
  3. More awesomer explosions!

Release: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.7

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

They had to postpone apocalypse so that this version could be released! Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.7 (3.44MB). Get it before we run out of copies!

In this version:

  1. Number of changes to the Campaign mode:
    • Fleets colonizing planets now leave a small part of the fleet for guard duty.
    • Planets have a certain threshold for fleet strength that the fleets try to fulfill.
    • Fleets also try to merge together to form bigger fleets.
  2. Various other fixes for GUI, bugs, balancing and to the heuristics.

And with that, I’m taking a small Christmas break, the next version can be expected to be released on 11th of January 2013.

New Version: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.4 (Codename Aatos)

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

The highly anticipated new version of Goldwingu is out: Goldwingu2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.4 (Codename Aatos) You have no chance to not download! Make your time!

Release notes snippage:

– Added menu-buttons for basic navigation in the start GUI.
– Added an options page were you can change key-bindings.
– Changed how explosions are handled.
– Fixed pausing to really pause the game (including internal timers for the game objects).

Day 4: New Version: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.3

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

Yet another day, yet another version: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.3

Snippage from the poorly written Release Notes:

– Medals now displayed at the top of the screen and listed after Game over.
– Tactical display shows Shield recharge rate and marks enemies that are one shot away from being reduced to their constituent particles.
– Players ships representation (sprite if you like) is now read from file (assets).
– Revised the short game help text as well as added a mention about the author.

Day 3: New Version: Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.2

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu

The new version of Goldwingu 2: Episode 1; Means to End v.0.2 is now out. Get it while it’s still lukewarm!

Snippage from the Release Notes:

– Added the fundamentals of a tactical display. Currently shows just accuracy rating for the player.
– New enemy types appear first on the level, until a new enemy type is introduced.
– Slowest speed for player has been increased to 6 from 4, medium speed slowed down 14 from 16 and fastest speed slowed down from 32 to 30.
– Added medals (=achievements) for accuracy and another for clearing every enemy on a bonus level.

Day 2: Balancing and Rhythm

Computer Games, Game design, Goldwingu, Programming

Now that I have (at least) solved my personally biggest gripe about Goldwingu, I’ll concentrate on something that is slightly more embarrassing from a game design point-of-view but slightly less embarrassing from a programmers point-of-view; balancing and rhythm.

As it stands now, Goldwingu has almost no rhythm to it. Balancing is purely just adding more stuff until the player or his machine croaks. The games needs to have rhythm to itself within a level and between levels. On the latter I’ve thought about adding a special level every 5 levels that really just offers a short breather and bonus points (and maybe a chance to calibrate your weapons).

Within a level I think the rhythm should be rising. It starts out slow and builds up, first slowly. On later levels the build up would reach absurd levels, dying down shortly before the end.  I wouldn’t put it past me that a level might contain a number of these build ups all within one bigger build up.  Done like this, the problem will seem almost trivial. I have a bad feeling this won’t be the case for real though. At least the order of the enemies (and shuffling of) will need thinking.

Balancing is, thanks to the many factors involved, slightly less trivial to solve. So far I’ve made the following choices:

  1. I made the first enemy and its bullets faster and more numerous.
  2. The difference between players ships speeds isn’t uneven. Currently the relative speeds are: 0.004, 0.016, 0.032. I just know I’ll get sleepless nights over this…

Part of the balancing is also the rewards, which includes the blessed explosions, plenty to tinker there. Also coming up are achievements or medals, which will provide a way to get better weaponry and equipment.