Archive for the ‘Programming’ category

Snake Game Prototype

February 24, 2015

This little prototype began as an idea for a twin-stick shooter in the vein of Super Stardust HD. But while the action in Super Stardust HD takes place on a sphere, I wanted to see if similar gameplay was possible on implicit surfaces. The idea was that the movement of the surfaces would supply a […]

Simulating Spiders

March 5, 2014

Spoilers ahead. If you do not want to learn about some of the more revolting monsters in Retrobooster, stop reading now. Cave-flyers commonly have stationary and flying enemies but not enemies that crawl along surfaces. These are probably left out because they are a lot of extra work, but they allow for fun new enemy […]

Death Ray

June 18, 2013

It’s been a long time coming. There are ten weapons in Retrobooster. One was the mine, which released from the stern of your ship and moved toward enemies before exploding and dealing vast amounts of splash damage. Unfortunately, it was difficult to place where you wanted it and just wasn’t any fun to use. It […]

It has been a while since I posted anything about the tech in Retrobooster. Lately, I have been refining the conveyor beams, which figure prominently near the end of the game. They are basically tubes of energy that pull game entities around the levels. Think of them as rivers of space. I imagine them as […]

Somewhat surprisingly, Retrobooster runs on Intel HD Graphics 4000 at 1920×1080 at a solid 60 frames per second. I had read about how good the new HD 4000 graphics part is, but I’m still a bit stunned to see it in action. This is really good news for Retrobooster because it greatly expands the number […]

Defender Drone

July 13, 2012

Some people have asked for a defense drone kind of weapon, so I put this one together. Nominally, it stays close to your ship to protect you from weapons fire, but it goes on the offensive when you are too close to enemies. It has enough shield energy to bash through a lot of stuff, […]