Attack Cannon Challenge in-progress...

[Adam Schmelzle]

Hello all!

I have mentioned 'Attack Cannon Challenge' a few times in some other threads, but now that it's on the way, I've made this board.

I intend on making several 'Attack Cannon' games, the firs of which is 'Attack Cannon Challenge', which I'll now simply call 'ACC'. ACC is a quick 'challenge' type game, that uses the same engine that the full 'Attack Cannon Pro' will use. 'ACC' will be more like target practice, where 'ACP' will be a full game against AI opponents, and 'Attack Cannon: Online' will of course be an online playable game.

As mentioned 'ACC' is mostly target practice. You will have 1 or more targets in each level, and have a limited number of shots to hit them all. I'm not sure yet about the bonuses and upgrades yet(if any), but there will be plenty in 'ACP'. I currently(after 2 days of work) have a full ballistics engine running with support for...

• variable gravity
  
• wind
  
• air-viscossity
  
• FULLY per-pixel deformable terrain
  
• 1600x640 sized levels (maybe bigger)
  
• smooth framerate (of course!)
  
• zoom in/out in real-time
  
• in/out of focus special effects
  
• runs on any phone
  

As far as I know, many of these features are above and beyond just about any other ballistics type of mobile game out there. I've played several, but they don't have huge levels, smooth scrolling, or zoom. Much like 'ABP', I have been greatly dissapointed in all other ballistics games. I really want to play this game when it's done.

As always, don't expect fancy graphics, but do expect excellent gameplay, and superior controlls. I'll also have rumble support in this game as well.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I've added water as well. Projectiles also behave differently based on their size and mass. For instance a small heavy projectile will have a higher terminal velocity in the air/water, as well as better burroing ability in the dirt. It's funny when you fire a big light object, 'cause it's like throwing a balloon, and it slows to a crawl quickly and floats to the ground.

I havn't implemented bouyancy(floating) yet. Don't know if I will bother. It's not like we will be firing things that should float.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I have the engine nearly complete. The camera automatically zooms in/out when the projectile(s) are near/far away from the ground now. It's pretty slick, since I don't think I've ever played a mobile game that zooms in/out ever.

I'm not going to implement all the advanced amunition/cannon options in the first 'challenge' game in this series. I am leaving that for the 'Pro' version. I have spent most of the last 2 days optimizing the calculation and drawing code. The game runs well, but it is quite slow on low end phones. I will see what I can do about the crappy phones, but this just may need to run on something better than a nokia 6585i for it to actually resemble a 'fun' experience.

Most of the people that actually play games on their phones don't have to worry, 'cause it'll run nicely on the game-oriented phones.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I worked more on performance today, and sped things up some more. It's just barely playable now on a Nokia 6585i, which is a really slow phone. Works like a dream on both my Samsung SPH-A920, and Sanyo SCP-6600 Katana.

Now that the engine is fairly stable and fast, I have to actually turn this into a quick game. Should only take a few days more, since it's a 'challenge' style game, not 'pro'.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Hah, I bet everyone saw this coming a mile away....

I am adding some more features to ACC. After seeing the success of those stupid 'virtual Pet' games, I have decided to give ACC some features that make you keep coming back for more, or you die.

I HATE those virtual-pet style games. To me they arn't even games, and in fact it's just 1 game released 10 times with some different stupid graphics for each so called 'pet'. I knew a long time ago that eventually somebody would do this, but was hoping it would not be done to this extent. I bet they release 100 more of those stupid games next month after seeing the money roll in on 2 days worth of effort.

Yes I am bitter. It would be so easy to release ABC 10 times with a different level in each one, but the idea of it makes me feel cheap.

[Adam Schmelzle]

I've come up with some interesting ideas for Attack-Cannon, and am now debating about how much to include in the ACC version. Every idea I come up with could add a bunch more development time, and I was originally wanting to have a quick game done, so I can get back to the box-game. I may force myself to release a simple game, no matter how basic by the end of the week, so I don't lose sight of the box game. The new ideas will likely come in the next version of Attack-Cannon. I may even have a cheesy little story element.

[ndom]

where do i download it from??

[Adam Schmelzle]

00adam.mobi
games.00adam.com
getjar.com (maybe)

That game was more of an experiment. Grab 'Water Stealers' 1 or 2. Those were based off attack-cannon, and have a lot more to do.