Shaw's Nightmare

[mickey96]

This is what I've up to: http://michealmuniko.comyr.com/1_7_Shaw ... tmare.html
I'm creating it for FreeDOS.

[mk1995]

I hope providing us with a screenie or two isn't too much for you to do...

[Andrew]

Hi Micheal,

I checked out your game and I must say for someone who's just stepped into his teens, that's a pretty impressive start! Keep it up and I'm sure you can become a good game developer one day.

As for the game, I'm going to give some constructive criticism and suggestions so don't feel bad that I'm unnecessarily saying something negative, ok?

1) You need to work on the graphics. I'm sure you know this. Presentation is a big part of any game, especially nowadays.

2) Since I couldn't remap the keys, I was trying to change weapons with the number keys but either - i) some other keys have to be used, ii) the keys wouldn't work for some reason, or iii) maybe they were working and all the weapons looked the same. If it's the last one, better graphics should deal with it easily. Even the ammo and explosions weren't properly visible for some reason.

3) I guess only 2 episodes are present right now? Selecting eps. 3 and 4 dumped me back to DOS. Anyway, do something about the colour schemes as well. The colours for the very first room in ep. 2 were so bright and garish that almost nothing else was visible. In general use sober matching colours and graphics and don't try to go overboard with the flashy stuff.

4) The Build engine is a very good choice indeed. Do check out Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood to see just how well they were able to exploit the engine's capabilities. Especially note how the "room over room" feature is used in Shadow Warrior and Blood. As for your game, now I don't know what the exact reason is, but the movement of the enemies was really jerky. Sometimes they just kept flickering very badly. Do look into this.

5) Try to make the game a bit more forgiving, at least in the beginning. I barely missed the path and stepped into the radioactive slime/ooze and I died instantly! That doesn't make for a great gameplay experience at all. If possible, do what Doom does, i.e. cause damage to the player slowly for as long as he's in that stuff, so that if he remains there for some time, only then he'll die. If he steps out of it, the damage should stop.

6) I didn't find time to play through the 2 eps., but just a general comment. Study other great games (such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood etc.) and user levels for them to see just what good level design is all about. Learn from the best! There should be a judicious use of enemies, traps, power-ups, secret areas etc. to make it interesting. If it's too easy or too tough, people will just give up in frustration. Now I know this is easy to say but very difficult to do. Good level design is a real art and mastering it doesn't come easy!

7) I couldn't listen to the music and sound effects as my integrated sound chip doesn't work under DOS, so I cannot comment. I'll see if I can try it out under DOSBox.

How much of coding have you done BTW, if any? Or did you just use level and graphics editors? You might want to spend time going through the source code for the Build engine, the Doom engine etc. Now I'm not saying it'll all make sense immediately (a lot of it is tough to understand for me even after many years!), but over time you'll slowly learn many great tricks. You also need a background in computer graphics theory esp., and since there's a lot of Math involved, don't even think of getting into it professionally if you don't like Math! Of course, game theory has progressed tremendously over the years, so these games which were pioneers and state-of-the-art once upon a time look positively prehistoric nowadays. Still, the older and simpler (relatively speaking, of course!) it is, the easier it is to learn. One can't start off with the complex stuff, right?

Anyway, that's about it for now. Keep at it and all the best!

Cheers,

Andrew

[mickey96]

1) You need to work on the graphics. I'm sure you know this. Presentation is a big part of any game, especially nowadays.

My artist skills aren't that great.

2) Since I couldn't remap the keys, I was trying to change weapons with the number keys but either - i) some other keys have to be used, ii) the keys wouldn't work for some reason, or iii) maybe they were working and all the weapons looked the same. If it's the last one, better graphics should deal with it easily. Even the ammo and explosions weren't properly visible for some reason.

You always have weapon 1. You must pick the rest up.

3) I guess only 2 episodes are present right now? Selecting eps. 3 and 4 dumped me back to DOS. Anyway, do something about the colour schemes as well. The colours for the very first room in ep. 2 were so bright and garish that almost nothing else was visible. In general use sober matching colours and graphics and don't try to go overboard with the flashy stuff.

You're right.

4) The Build engine is a very good choice indeed. Do check out Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood to see just how well they were able to exploit the engine's capabilities. Especially note how the "room over room" feature is used in Shadow Warrior and Blood. As for your game, now I don't know what the exact reason is, but the movement of the enemies was really jerky. Sometimes they just kept flickering very badly. Do look into this.

There was a demo for Build Engine, it had a easy to understand code. I always look back on that (and sometimes asked Ken Silverman) whenever in coding doubt. And the game was very fast. I develop the game under QEMU with FreeDOS and it was a lot slower.

5) Try to make the game a bit more forgiving, at least in the beginning. I barely missed the path and stepped into the radioactive slime/ooze and I died instantly! That doesn't make for a great gameplay experience at all. If possible, do what Doom does, i.e. cause damage to the player slowly for as long as he's in that stuff, so that if he remains there for some time, only then he'll die. If he steps out of it, the damage should stop.

The game is rediculously fast! Your health just drained very quickly.

6) I didn't find time to play through the 2 eps., but just a general comment. Study other great games (such as Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood etc.) and user levels for them to see just what good level design is all about. Learn from the best! There should be a judicious use of enemies, traps, power-ups, secret areas etc. to make it interesting. If it's too easy or too tough, people will just give up in frustration. Now I know this is easy to say but very difficult to do. Good level design is a real art and mastering it doesn't come easy!.

That's left for the beta versions, not now. KEEP IN MIND THESE LEVELS ARE STILL IN ALPHA STATE AND NO TRAPS ARE CODED YET.

How much of coding have you done BTW, if any? Or did you just use level and graphics editors?

I did all the art, the coding, the music and sound. It was a one-man project.

[mickey96]

Shaw's Nightmare v0.80 is avalible. Enjoy.

1. I compile with OpenWatcom V1.8 with the 32-bit DOS target installed.
2. When I finish Shaw's Nightmare I will send the code to anyone who wants it.

EDIT: I am going to start a FAQ.

[AuraDragon]

Question: is your site one of them freewebs? Or do you pay to keep it up?

(This community is too small to worry about necroposting.)

[musa]

I've abandoned the project without any announcement, but I think I am gaining intrest in it. A tech demo might be released tomorrow. If not then next week.

[Veke]

Just a question: Why are you stickying your PoP- unrelated topics?

[musa]

Because I like them to be noticed.

[mk1995]

If this doesn't even have anything to do with PoP, then why is it in the "General Stuff" forum?

[musa]

Whoops! I put it in the wrong forum. Move it if you like. Anyway the screenshots can be downloaded here.

[mk1995]

Alright. Moved to Off-Topic.

[musa]

I just realized that Shaw's Nightmare is a project too big for me to run. So I decided to let someone else take over. If you do decide to take over PM me and I'll send you all the material.

[mk1995]

Are you kidding? Why let someone else take over the project and potentially take it a path you never intended it to instead of just assembling a team of voluntaries and leading the development yourself? At least that's the way I'd do it.

[Dark77]

By the way, what's Shaw's Nightmare? : D