The Probe

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 3:21 am

Hey all,
I thought I'd share what I have been working on with my Boulder Dash inspired game called "The Probe"...

You can download an older, but more complete version of the game from here (Windows only ATM):

http://theprobegame.com

I wasn't happy with how the game physics was working, so I have gone 'back to basics', by creating a separate 'boulder dash' physics engine which I will then plug back into the main game when it is ready

Here is a video of the current engine in action (Dissolving some objects in acid):

http://fpc4gp2x.eonclash.com/videos/Pro ... otype.html

cheers,
Paul

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:58 pm

hmm...it is fairly quiet around these forums lately LOL

cheers,
Paul

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 7:14 pm

paul_nicholls wrote:hmm...it is fairly quiet around these forums lately LOL

True, this forum is not the most active in the world. Not yet!

But I'm following your work at the background, so thanks anyway for sharing your game and video!

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:32 pm

Arno wrote:
paul_nicholls wrote:hmm...it is fairly quiet around these forums lately LOL
True, this forum is not the most active in the world. Not yet!
But I'm following your work at the background, so thanks anyway for sharing your game and video!

Thanks for taking the time to watch the video Arno, and thanks for all your work with these forums and site

Did you get to try the game yet? Just curious if you did

cheers,
Paul

YouTube · Post by **Arno** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:02 pm

paul_nicholls wrote:Did you get to try the game yet? Just curious if you did

Not yet... I will, if I find some time soon...

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:09 am

I have just added the Teleporter Laser System (TLS) into the physics engine, so here is a video of the TLS in action (also available in HD too):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho_g9gB1KGM

cheers,
Paul

CWS · Post by **CWS** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:00 pm

looks great!

I hope there will be a playable version available soon!?

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Fri Apr 08, 2011 11:36 pm

CWS wrote:looks great! I hope there will be a playable version available soon!?

Thanks mate

I will try and get a simple playable version up and running very soon...

cheers,
Paul

subotai · Post by **subotai** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:33 am

Hello Paul,

Take your time before releasing it. The video looks very nice. You are right, the scrolling is a bit rough. Are you using QueryPerformanceCounter? If not, maybe this can help. Or try another version of the library, you are using. But as i already wrote: who cares, if the gameplay is good.

subotai

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Sun Apr 10, 2011 12:23 pm

subotai wrote:Hello Paul,

Take your time before releasing it. The video looks very nice. You are right, the scrolling is a bit rough. Are you using QueryPerformanceCounter? If not, maybe this can help. Or try another version of the library, you are using. But as i already wrote: who cares, if the gameplay is good.

subotai

Hi subotai,
thanks for the kind words and the tip mate

Just so you know, the scrolling in the video is rough because of the low FPS due to the video capturing

In the game itself, the scrolling is pretty smooth

cheers,
Paul

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:12 am

Hey all,
hopefully in the next few days I will be able to upload a simple playable version of The Probe in it's latest form (with new physics engine) so you all can try it out

It will come with some test levels that you can drag/drop over the .exe file to load them up and try them. There won't be any menus yet, and some of the effects won't be there yet like when you teleport items there are no graphical/sfx yet but it does work.

I will include a simple help document so you know about what items/objects there are and what the objectives are in the game

There will be a Windows 32 bit version first, but a Linux version (tested under Ubuntu 11.04) will come too so people with a Linux distro and no windows one can try it out...

Stay tuned!

cheers,
Paul

subotai · Post by **subotai** » Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:31 pm

Sounds very promising. I'm already curious about it.

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 12:53 pm

Finally, I have uploaded a test version of The Probe to my DropBox folder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1805932/TheProbe_Game.7z (2.46MB, Windows version only right now...Ubuntu version coming soon!)

Just unzip it to some location, it doesn't need installing.

If you don't get any sound, you need to install OpenAL...
http://connect.creativelabs.com/openal/ ... Items.aspx

It includes a help file .pdf, and the executable even has various extra modes like an Editor mode, fullscreen mode, and stand-alone level mode!

Please read the help document first, and then try it.

The in-game menu doesn't have some options working so they are greyed out for now (load custom levels, help, and options).

Please give me some feed back as to what you think so far, and if you feel so inclined, even try making some levels using the editor so I can try them out. If the levels are good enough I might include them in the final game as one of the 'campaign' levels!

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Paul

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:56 am

I will try and upload an updated version (new file) with some changes tonight that you can try...but in the meanwhile, please enjoy this one!

cheers,
Paul

paul_nicholls · Post by **paul_nicholls** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 12:25 pm

Here is the latest version:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1805932/TheProb ... 2.15%29.7z (2.82MB, Win32)

and the change log details for this version:

Version: 2011.12.15
* Change - Added in support for numberpad enter key with menus.
* Change - Made cursor always appear when in menu mode.
* Change - Displays version number in game to help debugging issues.
* Change - Added game controller support with menus (up, down, fire).
* Change - Updated "The Probe_Help.pdf" to include extra in-game controls and editor todo list.
* Fix - Stopped TLS beam and other things updating when doors opening/closing.
* Fix - Changed when doors can open/close so they operate at the correct times.
* Fix - Fixed bug when game mode didn't go to "player dead" when player killed by acid.
* Fix - Fixed bug when teleported player's health became 100%

Enjoy

cheers,
Paul