HTML5 RTS game: Dust And Destruction

Scirra hosted a Windows 8 game competition from the 4th to the 21st this December and I decided to try my hand at making a RTS with randomly generated levels, barely managed to submit it just in time for the 14th (Giving 7 days for Microsoft to hopefully approve it). So far it's only three days work, but here's what my friend and I were able to do with the pre-made graphics from the Construct 2 art pack!

If you'd like to try it early, you can play it at this link: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4714446/DnD/index.html (works best in Firefox or Internet Explorer 10, no time to test it in Chrome yet) We'll definitely add some more cool features like additional building construction and a tougher AI at some point after the competition. Oh, and happy to fix any bugs anyone finds as well =]

Edit:

Published to Chrome Web Store (crunched down to 10MB, plays offline): Dust And Destruction Chrome Edition

Published to Clay.io (possible future integration with leaderboards of rank and achievements): http://dustanddestruction.clay.io/

Clay.io is nice! Now it's a Facebook app: https://apps.facebook.com/dust_and_destruction/

Edit 20/12/2012: Finally made it after a third submission! Download it here http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-US/app/dust-and-destruction/897a48d9-83f2-438e-b4a5-3a4018aefbf5

Packt Publishing 1000th title celebration!

The publisher of my book (Construct Game Development: Beginner's Guide) is having a special promotion this weekend to celebrate their 1000th title published. Anyone who registers for a free account will receive an eBook (such as a copy of my book!) for free, as well as access to the entire PacktLib online library for the week =D

Go get your free eBook here!

Here's their press release:

28th September 2012

Packt Publishing reaches 1000 IT titles and celebrates with an open invitation

Birmingham-based IT publisher Packt Publishing is about to publish its 1000th title. Packt books are renowned among developers for being uniquely practical and focused, but you’d be forgiven for not yet being in the know – Packt books cover highly specific tools and technologies which you might not expect to see a high quality book on.

Packt is certain that in its 1000 titles there is at least one book that everyone in IT will find useful right away, and are inviting anyone to choose and download any one of its eBooks for free over its celebration weekend of 28-30th Sep 2012. Packt is also opening its online library for a week for free to give customers an easy to way to research their choice of free eBook.

Packt supports many of the Open Source projects covered by its books through a project royalty donation, which has contributed over $400,000 to Open Source projects up to now. As part of the celebration Packt is allocating $30,000 to share between projects and authors as part of the weekend giveaway, allocated based on the number of copies of each title downloaded.

Dave Maclean, founder of Packt Publishing:

“At Packt we set out 8 years ago to bring practical, up to date and easy to use technical books to the specialist tools and technologies that had been largely overlooked by IT publishers. Today, I am really proud that with our authors and partners we have been able to make useful books available on over 1000 topics and make our contribution to the development community.”

Download I Had Hope!

Now that we're re-making the engine, you can enjoy what was I Had Hope Alpha v0.5!

We won't be working on this version of I Had Hope anymore, so please do not report bugs, but if you have a feature suggestion feel free to let us know and we'll see if it will go into the new engine!

Download I Had Hope:

While we work on the new engine, we've released the Alpha v0.5 game and source for free!*

Alpha v0.5 Build - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4714446/IHH/IHadHope_Alpha05Build.zip

Alpha v0.5 Source - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4714446/IHH/IHadHope_Alpha05Source.zip

Features that might make it into the next engine:

• Multi-floor buildings
• Weather effects
• Weapon and item modding
• Animals
• NPC's with AI to help players in quests and provide dialogue
• Online and LAN multiplayer co-op for a large number of players (depending on how low-latency the network code turns out)
• 2-4 player splitscreen, one on keyboard and mouse and the others on Xbox360 controllers (or just 4 Xbox 360 controllers), possibly mixing with online gameplay

Want to edit the game? Download Construct Classic:

Construct Classic R2 from Scirra.com

Non-standard effects and plugins used in I Had Hope:
Plugin - TextureSetter by R0J0hound
Plugin - Unique Sprite by lucid 
Behavior - Path Movement by R0J0hound
Effect - Coloured Outline by Luomu

Find any others that stop the source from loading up? Let us know and we'll link or upload it here!

Having problems running the game? Try installing these:

Latest Direct X 9 (not 10 or 11) - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

The Visual C++ 2005 Redist - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3387

*Read the Readme.txt file for licensing information

Time for a rewrite!

Well, it looks like I'll be re-writing the engine for the game to fit many more features in. Still, this isn't so bad as I've already coded a large portion of the game engine once already, so it can only turn out better!

Here's some ideas that the current engine wasn't designed for but might be possible now:
-> Multi-floor buildings
-> Weather effects
-> Weapon and item modding
-> Animals
-> NPC's with AI to help players in quests and provide dialogue
-> Online and LAN multiplayer co-op for a large number of players (depending on how low-latency the network code turns out)
-> 2-4 player splitscreen, one on keyboard and mouse and the others on Xbox360 controllers (or just 4 Xbox 360 controllers), possibly mixing with online gameplay

I'll need to talk to Bioked first, but as the old engine isn't going to be used it may be released here as open source!

You'll be able to play and take a look through the code of the old Alpha while we make an even better game =]

In the mean time, you can check out the program I Had Hope is developed in, Construct Classic by Scirra.

Construct Game Development Beginners Guide

My book on making 2D games is out! It's called Construct Game Development Beginners Guide by Packt Publishing and is aimed at teaching absolute beginners to make their own computer games with Construct Classic.

If you're interested in seeing what the book is like, PacktPub have an entire sample chapter available to read!

Here's the overview:
"Construct Classic is a free, DirectX 9 game creator for Windows, designed for 2D games. Construct Classic uses an event-based system for defining how the game behaves, in a visual, human-readable way - you don't need to program or script anything at all. It's intuitive for beginners, but powerful enough for advanced users to work without hindrance. You never know when you’ll need a helping hand exploring its inner workings, or harnessing its raw power to do your bidding.
Construct Game Development Beginner's Guide is the book for you if you have ever felt the urge to make a game of your own. Reading this book will not only teach you to make some popular games using Construct, but you’ll also learn the skills necessary to continue on and bring your game ideas to life.
Starting as a beginner to Construct Classic, you’ll be learning to make platform, puzzle, and shooter games, each styled after popular games of their genre.
This guide covers everything from creating animated sprites, to using the built-in physics and shadow engines of Construct Classic. You will learn the skills necessary to make advanced games of your own.
Construct Game Development Beginner's Guide will lead you on your journey of making games."

With the book done, I Had Hope should get some much deserved attention again, although an engine rewrite is looking pretty tempting (to allow for multiplayer, better modding, less crashing).