game-editor.com

1942 was a classic vertical scroller. I used to play it at the fish and chip shop while waiting for my dinner. You fly a plane and shoot anything that isn’t you. There are heaps of enemies that you must blast your way through to win. Simple huh?

I recently decided to make a pocket pc version of 1942 (1945) to showcase the capabilities of Game Editor.
My Software
As well as Game Editor Pro I use

• Photoshop
• Cool Edit Pro
• Music Sculptor
Graphics
Ari Feldmans graphics are fantastic, free and are ready to use. I just cut out what I needed and copied them into my data folder.

I also used:

• Pictures I found on Google image search.
• Graphics that come with Game Editor and it’s demo programs.
• Bits I made myself using photoshop.
• Smoke designed by Zoiba at the Game Editor forum.
Sound
Richard Wagners "Flight of the Valkyries" was found on the web. I tried using an mp3 but it didn't really fit the computer game feel. The intro music is by the same guy.

The sound effects are from a personal sound library that I have been building for many years.
Coding
The coding was pretty simple really. I built one item at a time. Made sure it worked then moved onto the next.

The plane simply follows the mouse.

The view has a hidden “collision mask” which activates enemies as it scrolls upwards.

All actors have a local health variable. Being hit by a bullet reduces health. Tougher enemies start off with more health.

The “smart bomb” simply activates a white flashing square.

The “fade to black” effect is a black square set to the front that fades in and out.

I had a problem where smoke coming from the plane would prevent mouse clicks on the plane. This would stop it shooting.
So I moved the click event to an external actor. This actor uses an activation event to tell the plane that it is firing.

I often use invisible actors as markers to show where things are. The beginning of the level, for instance, or where the splash screen is. It just makes things easier.
Conclusion
So there you go. If you have any questions or comments I can be found at the Game Editor forum. If you have a highly paid game design job for me I can be found there also…


Posted by makslane

hey can you make a tutorial on how to make like a game with the same concept as 1945 but with tanks?

please.....im a newb....i want to learn....im clueless!!!!!

this game is pretty easy......i finished it first go....tanks would be cooler though...

Impressive.

I've only recently come across GE and I've been looking around the main site and forums to see what it's actually capable of. So far, this is the best thing I've seen. I also like that in your post you've given some details about how it was made.

Any plans to expand it into a full blown game?

Wow no one ever cmments on this i think that jazze bob is gone with the wind now.
THis was the first ever game i dowloaded for G-E 2 years ago.

Anyone tried this on their pocket pc? It runs really really slow on mine.....

This is a real show of on what g.e can do- runs real slick on pc- i will suggest changing the fire button from a mouse click to spacebar- it is very painful to unleash the required sum of shot to stay alive without getting servier hand strain!

30 Jan 2008
I'm pretty sure jazz_e_bob isn't working on this anymore(Unsure if he actually uses GE anymore)

well this is kinda finished

Ari Feldmans was mentioned and i got curious so i start browsing and skimmed over some chapters about a FISH DISH game. and there were some colour combinations mentioned in text. so i got a little more curious and punched into Gimp to see what they look like, so i don't know if anyone is curious about that. but here it is.

order is: top down for first column and then goes bottom up for second column and the like snake pattern.
where there's dot it means pure white was used.

Ah, the great "color burning" effect, where with the tint of the color, you change it's tone! Usually redder/bluer in darker and bluer/greener in light areas I try using this effect in my sprites, it makes the colors more vivid and convincing.

What is the "color burning" effect?

Well I'll try to explain this effect the best I can. I call it color burning because it's like you're "burning" the color... Anyhow

A basic tint pallet of colors looks like this:


as you can see, the color always looks like the same tone, except the tint (or brightness or luminosity...) get's changed.
Now if you change the tone of the color as it fades to black, it will give a burning effect, the change should be gradual.

example:

I'm sure the colors on this one are more tasteful.

If I remove the tint change to show only the tone change... here's what it looks like

As you can notice, the tone change is very basic.

here is another example with different tone change:

+1. i think i get it.

This runs really slow on my PPC...