Millennium Crisis:

Last Updated: 10/21/17
Genre: Action
Platform: Linux/Win32-ish
Release Date: TBA
Current Source: https://github.com/shamrice/mc_reboot (On GitHub)



Mon Oct 21, 2017 4:13am

So, after all these years, a few days ago I fixed the bug I was having where the NPCs text would read into random memory data and cause them to speak the wrong text. Well, yesterday I messed about with the code and managed to port it to my Windows computer. (Originally this code was written on Linux). After all my tweaking, I wasn't able to get the messaging section working because the SDL_ttf library didn't want to cooperate with me. The link below for any interested is the compiled version that should work on any Win32 compatible system. If you have a Linux system, please try the codebase from my GitHub linked above, it should work as long as you have the pre-reqs installed and use Code-Blocks to build.

Download: Link to Win32 Binary Download



Mon Mar 9, 2015 4:37am

So, I've now made the background a tile engine instead of a static image. These files are loaded from .map files based on the xy coordinates the player is in the game world. So far... so good. Plus, using 50x50 tile sprites (off a master tile sprite palette) makes things look much nicer.

Collision detection is now present through everything. From all bad guys to npcs, player and the world. All collisions are detected between eachother too. So badguys can't run over eachother either. I'm pretty happy with this so far.

I still need to make area data which sets the items xy locations (this includes badguys and npcs). Right now, it's random.

Bad guys/players have "injured" sprites as wells as dead sprites. I'm about to move over from the kittens and yarnballs to player and zombies but first will be an inventory system and the ability to pick up items.

Here's a screen shot from the first screen. It's inspired from the old RPG_net_alpha project from about 9 years ago. (C++ project right after Millenium Crisis)

RPG_net_alpha image for reference:
RPG_NET Alpha Graphics screen
Millenium Crisis first screen: (click to enlarge)
MC Reboot first screen


Here's the current map I've made so far (Screen shots from actual gameplay screenshots linked together). I'm thinking that the player finds their weapon in the top right screen or the screen that follows. (I'm thinking should be a graveyard.)
(Click to enlarge)
Small world map from game

So far my idea of a story is that you run into that first NPC who tells you they were hiking in the woods and they were attacked by something. They don't know what it was but it attacked them. You go to investigate into the woods and find zombies. You have to avoid them until you find your way to a graveyard where you find your first weapon and can attack them.

...from there, I'm not sure. I figure it's a start to get me going. :)



Sat Mar 7, 2015 4:49am

So, I've decided to take another go a Millenium Crisis.

Here's a screenshot from 10 years ago for reference:
Original game engine image

This is technically the 3rd reboot of the game idea. First one was with Qbasic back in the 90s and then again using C++ in the mid 2000s.

With my job, for the past 6 years, I've been writing almost completely in C#. It's finally gotten to the point where I miss C++ and that's been enough to motivate me through banging out a new very simple game engine for Millenium Crisis in the past day.

For the early testing, instead of using my pre-existing sprites of the protagonist and zombies, I'm using kittens and yarnballs. :)

So far I have:
* Configurable number of enemies that hunt you down and attack you (yarn balls)
* Configurable number of NPCs that you can talk to.
* Player's collision detection with everything. Enemies still will walk all over eachother.
* Player can shoot a projectile at a configurable strength to enemies that have configurable health.
* Enemies die when Health goes <= zero, as does player's.
* Player shows damage when getting hit.
* Image's are completely configurable for every player, bad guy, background, etc.
* There's probably a bit more I'm missing... It's been a busy day!

Still left to do:
* Multiple screens. Still need to create "world matrix" so you can move screen to screen and each screens information is set up using "world matrix" resource.
* Player picking up items / inventory in general.
* World sprites (ex: walls, etc). The code is there... should only take an hour or so to implement.
* Story... any ideas?
* More graphic design than I'd like. Final edition won't be kittens and yarn balls. (thus the visible mask failures on the images).. even though I probably would get more downloads in an app store with kittens over zombies. :)
* Probably a lot more I'm missing. It's almost 5am... I'm not thinking straight.

Here's a screenshot of the orange kitten protagonist stealing a second to get yelled at by an NPC before the yarn balls hunt him down and get him:

First screenshot of reboot

Yes. I'm aware it's unbearably corny so far... but look who it's coming from! :D

I know it doesn't look like much but I've actually gotten more done with this "reboot" so far than the original Millenium Crisis had in all it's development time.

Hopefully more updates to come! :D



8/10/06
Screenshot of the engine demo.

Millennium Crisis was originally a Qbasic game I started in 1999 as a joke of the whole "Y2K" scare. It was suppose to be a top view ASCII game that was done completely in black and white to poke even further fun at the whole 1950's horror movie feel. The project eventually died when I was too inexperience to create an engine that would work well enough to be manageable when scaled to full game size. And so it sat...

That is, until I started programming with SDL and C++. I revised the game from scratch. (Well, I mean I had to! The game is written in a whole different language! Also the original source file got lost along with Terrors' in the hard drive crash.) I released the basic engine demo which lets you walk around a small street and be chased by a few zombies. There's also a simple title screen in before that. I haven't created much more from there and I haven't in a while. The final version of the game is suppose to have puzzles and many places to explore as you find the reason everyone has turned into the flesh eating undead. More updates as it slowly progresses.


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