I’ve added shooting and aiming to Mato. I’ve also added gamepad controls, tailored for an Xbox 360 controller. The game currently has just one weapon, similar to the chaingun in Liero, but I’ll be adding more as I go on. The aiming is done with the second analog stick, while you can use the first analog stick to move left and right as well as control the direction of digging, so you can dig straight down, for example. The gun has analog control over the firing rate, with a maximum firing rate of 8 bullets a second. The clip is infinite right now, but that will change for the final version.

One thing I’ve noticed when writing Lua code is that it’s pretty easy to write horribly bad code. I don’t have to define classes, I’ll just use create an ad hoc table with the necessary fields. My code is a horrible mess right now, but I am going to refactor it eventually. It’s kinda nice to just make a mess of it all and write quick hacks.

Gonna writeup my game idea that sort of synthesized while I slept last night.  I feel the fun and scope of this game will be something I can pull off in 48hrs in Flash.

What I’ve got so far:  You will literally be playing as a cavern in an action / shooting gallery type game.  Your weapons will be stalactites which you will click on to let drop.  They will regrow and be various sizes as well.  You will also be able to click on steam vents on the floor that will shoot up a rush of hot vapor.  These will also have a recharge rate and various sizes perhaps even growing in various spots as the cave floor changes across game rounds.

You will be attacking against all manner of cave life, native and alien.  There will be the usual bats, snails, blind fish etc as well as various human archetypes one might find in this genre.  The lost teen(s), the hiding criminal, the cave explorer, the national geographic expedition etc.  Eventually if you incur enough rancor with the outside world you will be visited by the demolitions expert who will attempt to blow you up by placing charges.

I want to keep this in the realm of action/arcade instead of defense genre.  I think it will be more fun to interact with the cavern and very analog based ‘reload’ concepts (like watching the steam recharge in the vents and watching the stalactites regrow from the ceiling) versus a ‘recharge bar’ artifice.

Left to figure out is just overall cave layout(s) and round / difficulty escalation.

I’m picturing a really cool looking drippy cavern. The drips could even help with guiding the aiming of your rocks and stuff by helping lead your eye at the correct gravity setting to hit your targets.  I’m thinking mouse based click-controls to launch various attacks but I don’t want it to be a click heavy game.

I think the humor element could be high in this game as well if I handle it right.

Here is a current rough mockup for color reference:

Ludum Dare #2, theme Construction/Destruction and Sheep. My game, Sheep Strike. Sheep Strike is a 2 phase game. In the first phase, you construct using Tetris blocks, a defensive barrier to protect the baby wolves. Occasionally getting guns as well. In the 2nd phase, using your guns, you’d defend the base from a bombardment of sheep coming from the sky.

The game scored a Silver in the Theme category.