Games

Click to play Space Invaders

 Screenshot of Space Invaders clone game play, Jayson Ash Game Developer Studio, Sept 10, 2019

Space Invaders is another great classic video game. This game was one of the most popular games in its era. I made a space invaders clone and the process was quite an eye opener. At first glance I thought this game was very simple. Space Invaders had a lot of small details engineered into the game that I didn't realize it had.

So let me explain how the game works. For now there is only 1 level, which is a development environment for building the game faster. 

  In the current state of the game there are some important props to notice. Here is a list of them:

• Alien 1 – These aliens are at the top of the formation. They are the smallest targets and most difficult to hit out of all the aliens. They are also worth the most points.
• Alien 2 – These aliens are in the 2nd and 3rd rows of the formation. These aliens are not so small, but farther away from the player. They reward a decent amount of points when hit by a shot from the player.
• Alien 3 – These aliens are the two bottom rows of the formation. They are closest to the player and easiest to hit, so they provide the least amount of points.

All three types of aliens will shoot at the player if they are the lowest in their column of the formation. The aliens shoot at random intervals.

• Shields – The player can duck behind the protection of shields to avoid the barrage of alien shots.
• UFOs – A UFO will fly across the screen on a regular interval timer. UFOs give random score rewards when hit by the player's shots.
• Player ship – The player character moves left and right and can fire. I added some touch controls as an exercise to explore mobile-friendly user interfaces. The touch buttons are capsule-shaped and they're embedded into the play screen. The buttons on the left and right move the player to the left and right respectively. The button in the middle is the fire button. 

Each formation of aliens constitutes a level. After all the aliens have exploded the player advances to the next level. There's only one level so it repeats over and over again. In the future I may add more levels, but in the meantime feel free to make the high score. 

Space Invaders Q & A

Why did I create this project?

I created this project to prove my development chops. Creating a project based on fairly strict requirements demonstrates skill with dedication.

What was the most interesting thing about creating this project?

The most interesting thing about creating this project is the development of a new tool. The tool allows the simulation of pixels on the screen using three-dimensional cubes. I created this tool to enable quick development of graphics. This tool allows for animation as well. The animations process per pixel. By pixel I really mean virtual pixel in that each pixel is actually a cube in-game. This allows for future-proofing the artwork for when screen resolutions continue to increase.

What part of this project was the most challenging?

The only challenging part was getting the physics appropriately detecting collisions. The new tool was the cause of the physics issue. The rest of the project went together fairly quickly and uneventful.   

How did you design this project and why did you design it this way?

I designed a tool to allow for quickly building assets. I built it this way to allow for quick development of assets in future projects. I plan to continue adding more features to this tool in the future. I will evolve this tool into something that I can use for all my projects. 

What features would you like to add to this project?

I would like to add more to the levels to make the game progress. I would like to add a database storage for the high scores. All players could then contribute to the competitive interactivity within a community. This is actually pretty easy, but I'm limited on time. Development of this will take away from other projects that I'm working on. I will do this at some point in the future as time permits.

Click to play Lunar Lander

 Screenshot of Lunar Lander clone game play, Jayson Ash Game Developer Studio, Sept 10, 2019

Lunar Lander is a classic game that was actually inspired by the NASA Apollo program. I made a clone that simulates the original pixelated graphics on the Atari console. 

So let me dive into explaining how the game works: So far the game is only one level. This level randomly generated. This works great for testing and development. If I find a need for this project to grow I will add more levels. So the level consists of a lander, some terrain, and some landing pads. The object of the game is to safely land on the landing pads and reach the highest score. Using the arrow keys to control the lander, gently navigate to a landing pad of your choice. Touching the lunar surface will result in catastrophe so be careful. My version of the game includes some slightly different physics. I found the physics in the original to be too simple and uninteresting. The physics in my version allows for tilting the lander with the lateral thrusters. The left and right arrow keys activate the lateral thrusters. The up arrow activated the main thruster. The velocity display appears in the HUD (Heads Up Display) in the text overlay of the screen at the top. Excessive vertical or horizontal velocity is dangerous. 

Lunar Lander Q & A

Why did you create this project?

I created this project because I wanted to create a simple game about space. I love the intrigue of space and what better game to explore space than with Lunar Lander?

What was the most interesting thing about creating this project?

The most interesting thing  was adding a feature to the tool I created. This tool was for quick creation of pixelated assets that would display well on any screen. The new feature I added allowed for custom adjustments to parts of each graphic model. It would also execute arbitrary methods when adding any type of model piece. This new feature made it easy to add thrusters to the lander and make them point to correct direction. This was a small step toward advancing the tool to become more useful later on.

What part of this project was the most challenging?

Development of this project went very smooth. I would have to say adding a feature to my tool was the most challenging. This was due to the awkwardness of how arrays get defined in C#. The positions within the arrays were 90 degrees rotated from the intended display. This rotation offset required careful consideration during the model creation. 

How did you design this project and why did you design it this way?

The first thing I designed was the lander model with the thrusters and player controls. Then I designed the terrain and incorporated the collision handling with the terrain. Then I added in the landing pads. Each item was quickly added in a crude fashion. The rapid development allowed for testing the mechanics of how the player controls. The control handling is the most important aspect. With the feel of the player controls polished up I could then focus on polishing the rest of the aspects of the game.

What features would you like to add to this project?

I would add a high score feature. This would allow for everyone playing the game to have their high scores shared with the world. Players could then compete for the highest score.

Click to play Asteroids

Screenshot of Asteroids clone game play, Jayson Ash Game Developer Studio, Sept 10, 2019 

Asteroids is a classic arcade game. It was one of the more popular video games in its time. I made an Asteroids clone that simulates the game running on slightly newer hardware. This newer hardware had the graphics appear pixelated. The original version displayed glowing vectors.

Instructions for play: Use the computer keyboard if on a computer. If your device has a touchscreen use the virtual arcade button controls. The buttons with the arrows cause the ship to rotate in their respective directions. Left for counterclockwise. Right for clockwise. The button in the center causes the ship to teleport instantly to a random location. Use teleport with caution. The button to the right of the teleport button is the thrust control. Press and hold the thrust button to fire the thrusters which will propel the ship moving forward. The button on the far right is the fire button which will shoot a projectile in hopes to hit the intended target.

Asteroids Q & A

Why did you create this project?

I created this project because Asteroids was a popular game, it was easy to make, and I love space themes. 

What was the most interesting thing about creating this project? 

The most interesting thing about this project is that it has a random asteroid generator. The asteroid generator creates asteroids that are unique on the fly. I look forward to using this system in the future when I need more random asteroid-like objects. 

What part of this project was the most challenging?

I took some time to make some modifications to my graphics creation tool. My goal was to evolve it into a more robust system for use in future projects. I ran into an issue with physics not behaving as expected with my modifications. The physics issue was that the collision detection system no longer functioned correctly. I made the modifications to support creating the different sizes of the UFO saucers. This will allow for more easily creating animation sequences in later projects.

How did you design this project and why did you design it this way?

I chose to use pixelated graphics. I wanted to use the tool I developed to assist with rapid graphics development. I also added the arcade button control system for a mobile-friendly app. This mobile-friendly approach leveraged touch controls.

What features would you like to add to this project?

I would like to add levels that increase in difficulty. At present time the one-and-only level repeats forever. I'd like to also add some more strategic AI to the UFO saucers. This will enable the game play difficulty to scale with the advancing levels.