evo.war

This was a game I entered into the Community Competition, hosted by The Game Creators. I won 5th place.

I don't think there was any particular theme, so I just experimented with every idea that popped into my head. What I came up with was a shoot-em-up where the enemies 'evolve' based on how easily you were able to kill them. All ships including your own used the same code, except you were able to choose your upgrades, whereas the enemies were just random mutations. In the end this system didn't really make for fun gameplay or enemies that made any visual sense, so I scrapped the evolving enemy part and just hand-made them.

I did all programming in this game using C++ with the DarkGDK graphics library. This library doesn't contain any of the fancy feature we now know and love, so developing this game required me to create a UI system from scratch, including a sprite font system. I also developed the ribbon trail (missile trail) system from scratch, which required a lot of mesh manipulation code. I also did some procedural texture work for the progress line, and voronoi upgrade UI picker. The levels are based on text file parsing, and there are many small things I made like a playlist system, particle system, weapon system, modular part handling system, star shadow system, and much more.

You can download it HERE.

Judges - "Evo.war is another fine entry from Darkcoder. The attention to visual detail and innovative game play sets it aside from other entries. The principle behind the game is to take a standard side scrolling shooter in the R-Type style, and collect DNA as you work through the levels. You can then "evolve" your ship using collected DNA creating different designs. Starting as a humble egg-shaped craft, progress through the levels with varying weapon configurations. The game play can be very intense at times, almost frustrating; however the ability to adapt your ship to your preferred playing style is a great advantage. "