I finally set up the scanner I bought last week, which has encouraged me to do more freehand drawing.

My first piece in a while is colored pencil on orange paper. The actual image is a bit more intense, but I like the way this turned out after some Photoshop filtering.

Another update to address some feedback on the message boards, plus a little more polish.

Download Control Tower SFO

Cleaned Instruction text

Added UFO

Added approach change mid-way through game

Fixed mid-air collisions

Added some more radio sounds

I'm still not 100% happy with the radio sounds, so I might revisit them later.

Joe

Updates:

Changed Pause to F8 (otherwise you couldn't have plane P take off :)

Spruced up the victory page.

Normalized the radio chatter sounds, making them clearer

Tweaked difficulty (slightly harder)

Changed inbound graphic from green line to small green arrow

Edited Logo

And now there is a dedicated download page:

Control Tower SFO

Joe

The final version is available!

Download Control Tower SFO (905 KB)


(Click to Enlarge)

I tweaked the gameplay a lot, added radio chatter, and statistics tracking.

BTW, you can hear real-time ATC radio traffic from airports all over America, available at LiveATC.net.

Joe

Download Control Tower SFO (900 KB)

Made a ton of updates:

Elevation 0 = cleared to land. Can't give landing planes new orders

Added highlighted flight paths on the map

Fixed bug with advancing time manually with Space bar

Nicer menu UI (added buttons!) and splash screen

Altered "Conflict" rules to make it conform more to Kennedy Approach

Made scoreboard look nicer -- added stars for completed planes, etc.

Ability to [Tab] to see plane orders

Mid-air collisions!

No longer have to hit "exit fixes" at a certain angle





To Do:

Statistics tracking

Better voice sounds

Possibly allow keyboard shortcuts to give orders

Add installer

I'm pretty sure I can handle all this tomorrow afternoon. Despite starting on Wednesday, I think the total time spent in development will be just around 24 hours.

Joe

You can now download a near complete version of the game!

Download Control Tower SFO (900 KB)

I still plan to tweak the difficulty and the interface. I will probably add more voice clips, as well. And, not surprising, my Dad has requested mid-air collisions.

Joe

Six more hours into development (about 12 total), and it's really close to being finished.



I think this will be my most polished Game-in-a-Day ever. I still have a few hours tomorrow afternoon.

To Do:

Tweak game play

Pulldown menus

Hi Score

Scoring for delays

Record voices "Pshhhht, roger"

Playing Kennedy Approach on the emulator again gave me a better idea of how to handle the UI. I had fogotten that the game starts with planes at the airport that you need to spawn manually during the game.

I also realized I needed more destinations, so I brought the total up to 8. The airport codes aren't all correct because the UI dictates that each destination needs a unique first letter (e.g. I couldn't use SEA, because SFO already exists.) So, Orlando is ORL, not MCO. That will disappoint a lot of people, but screw them.

The planes now fly around and take mouse commands: Hold down the Left button on a plane to select it's heading, and hold down the Right for elevation.

Here, you can see Plane "E" on its way to Minneapolis/St.Paul out of Oakland. Plane "D", heading for Portland, is hidden under the elevation selector.




Here, the heading of Plane "A" is being changed:



Still quite a bit to do, but it'll be cool.

Joe

My Dad's birthday is coming up this Saturday, and I thought I'd make a game for him. (I did the same for my brother last week... maybe I'll post a download.)

My dad is an old school computer enthusiast, harking back to the days of the TRS-80. He even started what was probably one the first software retail shops in the Midwest, coincidentally called "Etc."

Whenever we get together and talk about computers, he inevitably gets to talking about an old Trash 80 game called Air Traffic Controller. The game is just like it sounds: you direct incoming and outgoing planes in real time, while avoiding disaster.

I had toyed with the idea of remaking this for a while, and kind of dropped it when I found there are already a few really good ATC descendants out there. But with GID 15 coming up this weekend, I figured I could do a casual treatment of the game and kill a few cats with one stone.

After 4 hours, here's what I've got:



There's a lot of good Air Traffic Control references on the web, but I'm mostly basing it on Kennedy Approach (1985) and this awesome graphic:



I have until Saturday night to complete it.

Joe

As if I don't have enough projects, I started my first demo tonight.

So far I'm using it to try out new 2-D animation techniques using just the basic drawing functions in Blitz.

I might actually finish it someday.

I'm almost finished with Lord of the Gems, a game I originally created for my first Game in a Day. It's meant to be like Lord of the Rings on a budget.

The game "plot" that I'm aiming for, keeping with the spirit of the book, is this: you are trying to reach the bad guy's lair before time runs out, while hiding from enemy patrols. You also camp a lot and sing embarassingly bad songs.

You avoid the enemies by moving through rough terrain (e.g. forest, mountain) where it is harder for patrols to spot you. The trade off is that you move much slower. You can also stand still for a couple of seconds until "hide mode" kicks in, in which case no patrol can catch you. The penalty for being caught is fairly harsh, so there is a lot of incentive to sometimes sit and hide while the bad guys pass. Sometimes they are annoying and camp right next to your hiding spot.

Small screenshot of the strategic map:

To Do:

Clean combat mechanics

Clean cut scene graphics

Finish encounter events

Draw Randalf the Wizard

Joe