Latticework takes place in a futuristic city. Now in this city are lattice tanks, vehicles created by the police to help them out with dangerous situations. Lattice tanks move according to a grid, for reasons unknown. These tanks aren't self-thinking robots, (nor are they really tanks) so they have to have a human operator. And that's where the main character, Rick, comes in. One night a random outbreak of lattice tank wannabes shows up out of nowhere, and it's his responsibility to make sure everything is still left standing. However, there's a catch. There aren't a whole lot of intense situations in the city, so the lattice tank supply is a bit small. It'll take a lot of caution and expertise to stop the legion of bots.
The Features Thus Far:
- 26 different weapons.
- 7 levels.
- Online scoreboard.
= Planned
= Accomplished
So What's Being Done Now?
Well, right now I'd say the movement and weapons is all complete (aside from wall collisions for some of the weapons) so next up is level planning, background drawing, and enemy design.
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However, I've finally got something that works. So that's one room down, variable amount more to go...
And I know, the part of the level in the screenshot is bland, to say the least. I'm going to be working on that eventually. Just as soon as I get some of the more important things out of the way.
So I've recently been working on this game quite a bit, and I've made a lot of changes. First and foremost, the new weapon system has now been implemented. Weapons are now split up between 6 categories: laser, bomb, shield, laser+, bomb+, and special. Secondly, the game now supports scrolling playfields, and will actively set the movement boundaries. Wall collision has also been added in. Last but not least, we have enemies, and the enemy healthbar. When an enemy is struck, its health and name will be displayed in a healthbar on the HUD.
To showcase these additions, I've created a weapon select demo which can be downloaded here:
Left-click -- Select weapon (weapon select menu)
Enter -- Start test stage / return to weapon select menu
Arrow keys -- Move
A -- Laser
S -- Bomb
D -- Shield
F -- Laser+
G -- Bomb+
H -- Special
------------------------
In addition to this engine, I've also been working on some of the artwork. So far just about all I've made are the characters for the between-levels cutscenes.
- This is a map of the city. Each section is its own level. The game begins on the purple island.
- The main character, Rick.
- Eryn, Rick's boss.
- The game's villain, Vikram. I'm still not sure if I'm happy with his design or not.
- A mockup of the first cutscene.
And so there you have it, everything I've been working on for the past two weeks or so. Enjoy, and don't forget to leave comments.
^ There's the engine. Controls are relatively easy, arrow keys for movement, hit a letter key on the keyboard for its respective weapon. Some of the weapons seem a little useless, I know, but that's because there are no enemies yet.
And now for the ideas part of it:
Genre
So I've really just been debating between two different genres for this game. My brother seems to think this game would make an awesome multiplayer game - and I'd have to agree with him. Actually, this whole concept stemmed from my want to make a multiplayer, grid-based shooter. However, there's one drawback I see with trying to make it; I've never worked with online multiplayer before. I'm afraid it would just get too confusing and I'd give up.
And so if I can't do that, then my second option would be to make a sort of shoot-'em-up out of it. I've already thought about how I could get it all to work, but it just doesn't sound as fancy as a multiplayer game, you know? Of the two choices, I'd say this is the more practical one though.
Weapon System
The (far) less important decision here. Obviously, you can't let your players have access to all 26 weapons whenever they want, right? It'd just get chaotic. And plus, it makes the control scheme awkward. So I've thought about two ways to set up the weapon system.
One is to have a "Gradius" styled weapon select. The letters are divided into seperate sections (ex. A-D, E-H), each section assigned with its own key (ex. A-D would use the Q key, E-H uses W). You can only choose one weapon per category, but you at least can have a weapon from each section.
My other thought was to give the player, say, 100 points to buy weapons with. Each weapon is assigned its own point value, and players can fill out their arsenal however they please. When you buy a weapon, it is placed in a weapon slot, which is used by a certain key (ex. weapon slot 1 is used by Q, slot 2 by W, 3 by E, etc.).
--
So those are my ideas. Feel free to leave your thoughts / comments / opinions.
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Mental_Block 
- 26 different weapons.
- 7 levels.
- This is a map of the city. Each section is its own level. The game begins on the purple island.
- The main character, Rick.
- Eryn, Rick's boss.
- The game's villain, Vikram. I'm still not sure if I'm happy with his design or not.
- A mockup of the first cutscene.
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