[WIP] Rescue Landing - my first HTML5 game

[Tarso]

TL:DR - I'm working on my first HTML5 game, named Rescue Landing. You can play it here. The source code (and more information) is available through a github repository. I appreciate any feedback you have

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Hello!

I was reluctant to create this post since you all are posting all these awesome, advanced, good looking games  My name is Tarso, I love playing video games and always wanted to learn how to code a game on my own.

After playing around with Java/Swing (painting on a JPanel canvas) and Game Maker for a couple of years, I started using HTML5 to create this game, and I'm loving the experience so far, I'm having a lot of fun.

It's called Rescue Landing and it's nothing you never saw before in other games. The objective is to control a lander ship through the levels to rescue hostages who can't leave the stage on their own. It's not ready yet, I still have some ideas to implement, but it's playable at last.

Here's the link to play it: http://tnaires.github.com/rescue_landing/
And you can read the source code here: https://github.com/tnaires/rescue_landing. I wrote some pages in the wiki, explaining more about the game and some ideas I have for it.

Also there's a screenshot attached (game doesn't look very nice, I suck at design).

Please let me know what you think. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

[aaryte]

That's pretty great for a first game. Everything seems to work fine! I didn't get through all the levels - the U shaped one kicked my butt.

There's no upper limit to your horizontal velocity when you land, so I can hop/crawl by holding the left or right arrow down, and tapping the up key, so I scoot along the ground in teeny parabolas. It might not be intentional, but it's fun!

Suggestions:

The main thing that game needs is sound. Maybe check out the Web Audio standard. It's fairly easy to work with to synthesize some sound effects in vanilla JS. Thrust, landing, rescuing, exploding, and finishing a level. And it's something you'll want to be able to add to every project. Here's a tiny stand-alone utility class for making very simple noises if you want a basic example: https://github.com/aaronwhyte/cave2d/blob/master/public_html/js/sound/soundfx.js - that's what I used to make all the sound effects in cave2d.com.

The original Lunar Lander arcade game has a big analog thrust control lever. Crazy idea: It might be fun to try using the mouse's Y value as an analog thrust controller.

[Tarso]

Thanks for playing and for your comments!

3 hours ago, aaryte said:

That's pretty great for a first game. Everything seems to work fine! I didn't get through all the levels - the U shaped one kicked my butt.

There's no upper limit to your horizontal velocity when you land, so I can hop/crawl by holding the left or right arrow down, and tapping the up key, so I scoot along the ground in teeny parabolas. It might not be intentional, but it's fun!

The interesting thing is that the lander didn't have limited fuel until yesterday, when I implemented. This simple aspect added a lot of challenge to the gameplay - the sixth level got way more challenging after this.

I decided not to limit the landing horizontal velocity because it's constant, since there's no horizontal boosting. That way it's possible to move the lander horizontally the way you did - which in fact was not intentional but turned out to be a good aspect of gameplay 

3 hours ago, aaryte said:

Suggestions:

The main thing that game needs is sound. Maybe check out the Web Audio standard. It's fairly easy to work with to synthesize some sound effects in vanilla JS. Thrust, landing, rescuing, exploding, and finishing a level. And it's something you'll want to be able to add to every project. Here's a tiny stand-alone utility class for making very simple noises if you want a basic example: https://github.com/aaronwhyte/cave2d/blob/master/public_html/js/sound/soundfx.js - that's what I used to make all the sound effects in cave2d.com.

The original Lunar Lander arcade game has a big analog thrust control lever. Crazy idea: It might be fun to try using the mouse's Y value as an analog thrust controller.

Thanks for showing me this! BTW great game you have there! I'll definitely take a look at the code to get some learning. I also intend to compose my own title / background / ending songs to add to my game, using applications like Garage Band or Linux Multimedia Studio.

[totallybueno]

Definitely, you need sound And maybe some steering animation for the "spaceship" when you move it horizontally.

 

Also, @aaryte, really big thanks for that sound library, I it!!!

[Tarso]

5 hours ago, totallybueno said:

Definitely, you need sound And maybe some steering animation for the "spaceship" when you move it horizontally.

Thanks for your comments @totallybueno  Yeah, a lot of people is telling me this, will be my first priority now.

Since I created this topic I added some new features:

• Lander has now limited fuel;
• Created new stages. There are now 12 stages - 6 on earth, 4 on the moon and 2 on jupiter (gravity changes accordingly);
• Game has now a title screen and an ending screen;
• I've put some colours over the whole game.

[totallybueno]

It looks better now

And about my advice, just a simple rotation should be enough, rotate + or - 5 degrees en right/left will make the effect (it´d better if you use a tween).

Also, how do you play the next level? I´m using space but I´m alway playing the same level... Am I missing something?

[Tarso]

Perhaps the feedback to the player is something else I need to work on It's not really clear, but in order to advance to the next stage you must rescue all the hostages and leave the current stage. That way a "WELL DONE" message will be displayed and then your ship will be placed into the next level.

[totallybueno]

Ok, now this looks better

I´m not the smartest guy, but yes, I think that should be more clear

[kevdude]

Just a tiny suggestion - In the bottom left you have "earth: 9.8m/s". The gravity feels much more like the moon, so I would either increase the effect of gravity to make the physics more earth-like or change the text to "moon".

great game!

[Tarso]

9 hours ago, kevdude said:

Just a tiny suggestion - In the bottom left you have "earth: 9.8m/s". The gravity feels much more like the moon, so I would either increase the effect of gravity to make the physics more earth-like or change the text to "moon".

great game!

Hey thanks for your comments! I put this as Earth since stages 7 to 10 are on the Moon, and the gravity acceleration will be even smoother.

[marcgfx]

nice game. I think it's rather hard to judge the acceptable impact speed and it's overall rather punishing. maybe allow faster impact and make the hitbox a little smaller. it would also be nice if the passengers would walk to the ship if its close enough

[Tarso]

On 7/24/2016 at 5:00 AM, marcgfx said:

nice game. I think it's rather hard to judge the acceptable impact speed and it's overall rather punishing. maybe allow faster impact and make the hitbox a little smaller. it would also be nice if the passengers would walk to the ship if its close enough

Good points, currently the game is pretty difficult and this might impact the fun factor for some players. I'm not working on this game anymore because I started to work on another one, but I'll take notes to implement these points as soon as I go back to it.