Data Runner
You are a computer program sent in to infiltrate a server and recover a packet of highly valuable, confidential information. You must navigate the maze-like structure of the server's innards to find the packet, but good luck making it past all the antivirus and security software in one piece. The clock is ticking, so hop to it!
Written in C++ with SDL.
NOTE: Windows build is up! Let me know if you have any problems with it.
Comments (19)
I have played the windows version and had no technical problems. everything seems to work quite nice there!.
The game is very well balanced and the controls feel quite directly. Feedback (if you have been hit) is also good (you could add screenshake to that).
If you want to improve this a little bit further, I would suggest to have a screen transition when the player touches the golden package or restarts due to being shot/hunted down.
Also a winscreen with some statistics would have been nice, because in the last critical moments of the game (just before you touch the golden packet), I did not have the time to look to the timer. So I displaying that on a separate screen seems like a good idea.
Agree with @Laguna a win screen would have been nice, having the same result for success and failure is a bit off putting. The shadow casting thing is certainly very pleasant to look at. Is the golden packet always reachable?, on one stage i could see the beacon but couldn't reach it, although i git killed before i could fully explore the map to see if there was some onbscure route. A little minimalist music would have added a lot for the atmosphere. And yeah while you are doing the procedural graphics why not throw in some cool transitions and go crazy :) . Also props for taking the hard option and going down the C++ / SDL route also. Nice work for 48 hours. Now wheres the emscripten webGL version? :D
Even though the "art" is very minimalist, it looks good. Although, I'd change the color palette a bit from using pure bright colors to make it look a bit less placeholdery. Simple screenshake does wonders for player feedback and adding some sfx to the mix would have made it even better.
Some kind of level/progress system would have been nice. Like start the levels off as way smaller ones and gradually increase the size and complexity of them and same for the amount of enemies (and maybe even difficulty of them as well). Maybe sprinkle in some health packs too to keep players fueled on longer runs and encourage more exploration (some risk vs reward action). Would add a lot of replay value and something to aim for.
Pretty nice variety on enemies and they were balanced quite well. First the smaller red ones seemed quite notorious with their almost same movement speed but "luckily" their pathfinding wasn't that great is it was easy enough to make them get lost in the terrain. The cyan bullets can get quite tricky to notice from the white background if you're not paying enough attention. Dunno if it's just me or if it even is a bad thing.
Seems like it is possible for the level generator to do gaps that are too small to squeeze through.
Good job! Always cool to see people still carry the C++/SDL torch ;)
Unique use of the theme, and a fun, little game.
You may want to change the colour of the laser enemy. Got confused the first time I stumbled upon one as it looks exactly the same as the chaser. The line did help somewhat, but would definitely help if it was also a different colour.
Feedback from damage was clear. As other people have said, screenshake and SFX would add to that. Would also like to see some kinda transition, or a simple endscreen, when you win or die. It's difficult otherwise to see the time it took for you to complete the level.
Antti's ideas on the level/progress system are exactly what I would have said. Slowly introduce the player to the different enemies, and start with smaller levels.
In the end though, I enjoyed playing it. I got really into it at points, even screaming "ARGH!" to myself as I was trying to escape multiple enemies at once. Can imagine it feeling even better when you have music and SFX in there.
I really like this game. The enemies are very well balanced, and I know that the speed ratios of each element are really tricky to get for this kind of games. Also, i love the vision effect, and I would like to know the specifics of the algorithms that were used, if the creator is willing to share.
I think this game would gain a lot just with some sound effects, even if they are placeholders.
@JMPizana The vision effect (as well as several other things in the game) were based on Bresenham's line algorithm. I store the level geometry as a bitmap, so all the raycasts can be implemented as a line drawing function that returns early if the current pixel represents a wall. For the player's vision, I do a series of raycasts from the player's center outward toward each pixel in a square outline around the player. That looks like this:
To make it round, I also compute euclidian distance from the player at each pixel, and return early from the function if it exceeds the maximum radius (in the game, that's 160 pixels). And to remember which areas you've seen, I just blit the result of those raycasts back into the tilemap each frame. It's not perfect, as it can result in some visible artifacts in certain edge cases (like in @anttihaavikko's screenshot), but it's simple and fast, and I think it's good enough.
I might do a longer write-up about the game's programming at some point, because there are some other things - especially in the movement system - that I think are also pretty interesting.
@sebastianscaini @caiqueassis @isubka I didn't realize I could tag people to notify them before, but the Windows build is up now
Hey!
So, I played the game now.
I must say that even if the only thing I was doing was running and dodging, that felt very good - mainly avoiding those laser beams from some of the enemies.
I was somewhat disappointed that in the screenshot you put here, it's actually the effect when you get hit…that red aesthetic looked very cool :P
One thing that I must say is that the game seemed too easy to me. I played several times, and didn't die once - I only did it on my last run on purpose, but the result was the same if I won, like others said. I think it would benefit from at least some transitions or "you win / lose" screens or messages.
I gave pratically no attention to the timer up there to, since for me it didn't hold any purpose other than really thinking "how fast can I find it" - but since it's randomly generated, that breaks the point a little, and like I said, gave me no real motives to keep looking at it or to be worried about the time.
I think if you added even a basic combat system and more enemy variety, that would be nice. Those enemies that were shooting at me, for instance, I thought you could trick them into shooting another enemy.
But overall, I like it - the shadow effect is really well done, and simple graphics are always welcome for me. It'd be nicer if the characters were a little bigger, but overall, nice and solid for 48h. Good job!
This is a simple game, but it feels very polished! The hits felt surprisingly heavy despite the lack of audio -- I think with some simple sound effects from something like jfxr would make it even better.
Running around the maze, I was worried that I might get cornered or ganged up on from all directions (or otherwise hit inevitably) but I found that I could always out-maneuver the enemies, which felt good. Along those same lines, that did make it somewhat easy, as it never felt particularly challenging to dodge or run away.
Anyways, really cool entry, and props for using just SDL!
Solid concept well executed. The graphics are striking in their simplicity. I like how the field of view system is based on individual pixels.
The enemies design reminds me of N, the laser enemy especially. There is unfortunately a downside to the top down perspective in comparison.
In N gravity often times forces you to move in such a way that even the simplest enemy behavior stays dangerous through out the level. Here there is no such limitation to movement so it is very easy to dodge each enemy type simply by moving in a set direction.
Some active abilities, even if only movement related, would allow you to mix up the enemy behaviors. Sprint, dodge roll, teleport, etc. You can come up with loads, I reckon.
Good job. This is worth expanding.
Overall: 7 (Good)
Graphics: 8 (Great)
Gameplay: 6 (Above average)
Originality: 6 (Above average)
Theme: 6 (Above average)
PS. How 'bout a Linux build?
looks real cool, let me know when you get it running on windows