Mars Attacks

Mars Attacks is a game that I created during the Structures of Game Development course at Full Sail University. Since this is basically the first time we made our own game from scratch, using C++ and DirectX, and we only had a few weeks to work on it, I tried to take a relatively simple game idea and put my own twist on it. The basic premise is that aliens are attacking the Earth and the only thing that can stop them is a massive turret that shoots bullets, missiles and bombs.

During this project, I learned many different techniques that are helpful to know in 2D game development. I used vector mathematics so the projectiles would look appropriate when fired from the gun. I did some frame-based animations to create explosions and sparks that indicate that the ships have been hit or destroyed.

Rocket

I also learned how effective loading information from a file can be for game development. Each level is loaded in from an XML document which tells the game which song it should play, what time the enemies should attack, which type of enemy should attack and what file contains the information for the next level, if one exists. Rather than just having enemies attacking at random intervals, I was easily able to sync the attack to the song, which makes much more of an impact on the player.

Guided Missile

 

Music was also an important consideration for this project. When I first thought of the idea for the game I knew I wanted to incorporate some of my favorite music. I clipped some sections from songs by The Contortionist, Animals As Leaders, Substructure and Irepress, because I felt like their occasionally "spacey" styles would fit the game perfectly.

Bomb

This project was an excellent learning experience. With the help of my course director, David Brown, and the lab assistants, Robert Martinez, Sean Hathaway, and Shawn Paris, I was able to learn quite a few useful techniques and make something pretty cool for the level of experience I had at the time.