Part One
( I don't actually have this issue anymore (it must have got lost over the years), so I was bowled over when the following arrived in my mailbox, all formatted and ready to go. Many thanks to Dave Foreman for sending it in.
- Alex )Over the next few months we're running a special series of features covering in detail the way a computer game is developed. We shall be following its programming, production and promotion actually through the eyes of the people concerned. The game we've selected for the job is the new one planned by HEWSON CONSULTANTS, provisionally called PARADROID, which is due for release in the autumn. It's being written by Hewson's ANDREW BRAYBROOK, whose previous game GRIBBLY'S DAY OUT gets a Sizzler review in this issue. This month we're printing the first of several extracts from Andrew's diary. By the time the series is complete you'll have obtained a unique insight into the way a software house goes about its work.
The thinking behind the game
Here's Andrew Braybrook's explanation of his plans for Paradroid:
Gribbly's was all cute so this one is going to be high-tech. It is based around a large space ship. What you actually play on is a scrolling large-scale view of one of the decks, seen from above.
You'll be able to access a plan of the whole deck but you won't be able to see the details on that. Another screen will be a side view of the ship so you can see where the deck is in relation to the whole ship. Other views include logging on to the ship's computer.
The thing you actually play with are robots shown from above. There's going to be lots of them. If you want to know more about a particular robot what you do is log-on to a computer terminal. From there you can sift through all the robots and get large side view pictures and you can select things to get more information.
I've been working hard on it for about four weeks, but I was working on utilities - programs to help make the finished game - for a couple of weeks before that. I always like to do the character set first because it buys time while you're thinking about the rest of it. It's probably the easiest thing that you can do.
It's not really an arcade adventure - it leans more towards arcade. Gribbly's I wanted to be a non-violent game. All of the zapping and violence that I couldn't get into Gribbly's will be going into this one.
Last week we designed the game's 20-deck space-ship, but I'd like to actually build one just to make sure it all works - all the lift shafts tie up and the decks fit together. Maybe I'll try using Lego. Dunno, it might work.
So far I've got a little robot skating about inside a test deck plan. You can log onto a console, select an option, make an enquiry on the test robot and get a big picture of it. The piccie uses all eight sprites combined (the maximum available on the 64 at any one time). Despite being a view from above, I intend you won't be able to see anything behind a wall. You'll have to go into a room to actually explore it.
Wednesday May 1 |
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Thursday May 2 |
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Friday May 3 |
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Tuesday May 7 |
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Wednesday May 8 |
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Thursday May 9 |
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Monday May 13 |
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Tuesday May 14 |
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Wednesday May 15 |
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Next month: | Get the game of Paradroid here. (N.B. When you download, rename the file to PARADROID.PRG, it's not actually a zip file!) |
Has Kenny Everett put a hex on Andrew's prog? Will Steve stop the cat from eating the ruler? Will the paranoid paradroid learn to shave? These and other questions will be answered next month!! |
Note : This article was original on Alex's "Brigadon - Zzap!64 Online" site, which has closed down while he's gone on a world trip and eventually planning to live and work in Dublin, Ireland. According to his farewell message on his site he gives premission to grab and download any pages of use. I tried to contact him directly to request premission to actually use those pages on this site, but as I found out from a friend of his, he'd left already. At the moment I'm going by this farewell message and assuming that it's okay to use his pages on this site. His site will be offline and these articles shouldn't be lost. Should he request it or his site comes back at a later stage, I'll delete these related files. |