[Homebrew Idol 2] Apollonia v0.04

[GlennNZ]

[UPDATE] 0.04a is now available. The changelist is below.

Justin and I from team Code Tactics have release v0.04 of our Helicopter shooter, Apollonia, to coincide with the Dashhacks Homebrew Idol 2 Competition.

To quote our website, here is the following changelist:

Features
* Chase camera - The default camera view is from behind the helicopter, rather than from isometrically above. The original (retro) camera view can be selected from the controls screen.
* Player profiles - Player names and data can now be saved to a database.
* Enhanced particle effects -ÊThese are used for missile impacts and bullet to ground impacts.
* Airstrike! - An A-10 Thunderbolt II can be called using L+R trigger. Includes audio.
* New Apache model.
* Ingame messages can be printed to the HUD.
* Briefing screens - To add meaing to the madness, there are short mission descriptions for each mission (excludes Instant Action).
* Three new missions.
* Friendly tanks.
* Player Statistics - Mission data is saved to a player's profile. This includes flight time, accuracy, deaths etc.
* Post mission score board -ÊThe score board summarises statistical data of a just completed/failed mission.
* New Ammo and Health display on the HUD.
* The player helicopter can start some missions airborne.
* New factory building.
* Existing buildings have been scaled more accurately.
* Tweaked existing missions so that the player is less likely to be overwhelmed.

Under the Hood (for your interest)
* Particle Engine, Terrain and rendering optimisations.
* Splash Screen fixes.
* You can now shoot through destroyed buildings so that units inside them can be hit.
* Using the sqlite database for player data.

Known Issues
* Sometimes there is incorrect textures loaded (very elusive).
* Three Player Profile limit.
* High memory usage. Beware of too many PSP background processes.
* Suspend mode not supported.
* There is a delay between the mission being won/lost and the scoreboard being visible. This is because of the time taken to write data to the database.
* Slow load times; about 8 seconds (minus Sony logo).
* Some instances of near plane clipping of the terrain resulting in small amounts of unrenedered terrain.

We hope you enjoy it. As always, we like to get feedback and suggestions.


[Update]
We have released a maintenance release (version number 0.04a). This was to make use of the 5 day bug fix period on offer. We're pleased to say though, that this is the fastest/smoothest the game has ever run. Sure, when the action gets insane, the FPS suffers a little, but it is definitely an improvement over prior releases.

Changelist for Apollonia 0.04a

- Code Optimisations
- Explosions from tank shells hitting buildings are visible more often
- Thinner air strike targeting circle

New known issue is when everything except the hud turns white. I've had this happen once on "Instant Action" but nowhere else. Thanks to pirata nirvo for first noticing this. Note the game doesn't lock up. Returning to the main menu and restarting the game is still possible.


Version 0.04a can be downloaded at www.codetactics.com from here







Thanks.

[pirata nervo]

Wow this looks impressive! Downloading now
Edit:
the download link should be linking to http://www.download.codetactics.com/...a_0.04_psp.zip

[gold2040]

reminds me of Desert Strike for some reason...

I may give this a go when I fix my PSP

[pirata nervo]

This is a pretty cool game, congrats.
I have found one bug though. While I was running from the missiles.. .. I stopped "running" so the missiles wouldn't stop flying and wouldn't touch me because I suddenly stopped and then the screen went white!?

[GlennNZ]

Originally Posted by pirata nervo

This is a pretty cool game, congrats.

Thanks

I have found one bug though. While I was running from the missiles.. .. I stopped "running" so the missiles wouldn't stop flying and wouldn't touch me because I suddenly stopped and then the screen went white!?

Does this white only happen when you reach the edge of the play area? That's strange. Does the whole screen go white or just the terrain?
For dodging missiles, I suggest flying in circles and firing guns.

[SG57]

Reminds me of that N64 game with the toy soldiers and the helicopters, god i loved that game.. Those green little toy helicopters bombing lil' army guys lol..

The game as a whole is awesome, but keep in mind the competition is to inspire developers to create new games; updates of pre-released ones get judged off their changelog.

Best wishes

[GlennNZ]

Originally Posted by SG57

The game as a whole is awesome, but keep in mind the competition is to inspire developers to create new games; updates of pre-released ones get judged off their changelog.

Yeah, I know, to the point where I actually sent an email asking if we were eligible. The funny thing though, is it took us a huge amount of hours to make this release. Visible progress (from a user's perspective) is very hard to achieve once a game reaches a certain point. i.e. We created our own 3D GUI library, but the user would never know that unless you told them.

...and the last thing I want to do is create a new game.

not a bad game, however im running into some pretty bad framerate ishues.
cpu is set to max.

One of our major goals is to improve this. Despite significant culling of renders and avoidance of updates when things are out of the view frustum, there is a lot of CPU going into those particle effects. We just have to be more clever.

[pspjoke]

not a bad game, however im running into some pretty bad framerate ishues.
cpu is set to max.

[pirata nervo]

@GlennNZ, just the terrain

[justinlatimer]

Other codetactics guy here...

Just wanted to say that we do realise that we are at a disadvantage in the competition having an already existing game (as well as 2 of us ). But these comps are really good for the homebrew scene, and we want to support them, and it's cool to be a part of it. Nothing like a challange, pressure makes diamonds.

We weren't originally planning to do a bug fix within the 5 days, (cos we don't write buggy code ) but looks like our framerate is letting us down. So we're gonna do our best to speed it up, and hopefully we'll have something in time for the rest of the comp. We'll also look at the ground draw bug while we're in there.

Anything else anyone wants to suggest?