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Submitted by , posted on 26 June 2001
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Image Description, by
"Jadlings," as I egotistically call it, is insipred by the cross-platform
game concept of Lemmings(TM), by Psygnosis, DMA, et al. The gameplay is
similar; the player guides the creatures from entrances to exits by
utilizing attributions such as climber, floater, and exploder. By
minimizing fatality rates, the player achieves high scores and recognition
by his or her peers. Eventually, the player becomes the god (through his
own eyes) that Jadlings allows him to be. On a psychological level, this
scheme appeals mainly to Populous enthusiasts; those who revel in the brief
two seconds when Neo flexes his muscles and bends the walls and world around
him.
Anyway, allow me to explain the photons above: The screener in the middle
is what the main menu looks like. "Configure" just takes you to the level
editor, where you can use the arrow keys to change tiles and the mouse
buttons to place them. Invert your eyes to the upper-right and view an
in-game screenshot. If things just aren't going your way, click on that
mushroom cloud and watch as all the Jadlings get a five second counter
hanging over their heads. Five seconds later and their innards bounce
across the map.
Features:
Windows AND Linux
Slow Motion
Fast Forward
Pause
Level editor
24bit color
Gravity
Scaled solidity minimap
Quake-style console with commands, command listing, environment variables,
EV listing
Particle System with gravity, bouncing, fading
Visually pleasing interface (soft colors)
Nostalgic gameplay
As for the actual programming, I chose an interesting path. Just about
everything that is calculated is based on dt, the change in time in
milliseconds since the last time the world was updated. There is a big
advantage to this - the game time matches real time so it runs at the same
speed on every computer, regardless of processor. There is a big
disadvantage to this - if dt gets too high, collision detection accuracy is
pretty much out the window. So there is a rudimentary check in there
already to split up dt to the point of reasonability, but of course bugs
still exist. When using fast forward, Jadlings are often stuck inside
rocks, etc.
The game is about 80% complete and will stay that way unless someone is
interested in helping me finish it. This was more portfolio work to keep me
busy while I seek employment. Speaking of which, my resume is available
upon request ;)
A playable demo will be up at my website as soon as I upload it:
www.Jadware.com, Software section. Anyone interested in seeing the source
code needs just pledge a few hundred lines of code towards the ultimate
completion of the game. Thank you for the time.
Thanks,
Jad Meouchy
Jadware.com
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