Chris - Intro

I'm Chris Warren. I work in IT at Williams, focusing on web development and databases. I co-founded a tabletop game design (and playing) group that's been meeting about once a week for the past 10 years or so.  I have no real background in graphics programming, but I can happily hack around. I'll be doing the pro 16 format, more or less - I'll probably end up stacking some days and skipping others as family and other needs dictate, but I'll stay in the 16 hour limit regardless.

The game I'll be working on is Explosion Golf. My current dev plan is:

1. basic screen regions laid out
2. all game elements represented by simple shapes (square or disc/filled-circle) of varying colors
3. course / hole has a simple BG image
4. can zoom in / out (center of course / hole as anchor)
5. avatar can run around the course / hole and view remains centered on avatar
6. inventory shows the ball and 4 sizes of bombs, 100 each for now
7. can drop the ball on the course by dragging and releasing
8. can drop bombs on the course by dragging and releasing
9. dropping a bomb adds it to the detonation queue
10. bombs only dropped when in reach of the avatar
11. if bomb dropped outside of reach, return it to the inventory (and remove it from the detonation queue)
12. highlight any bomb (or other item) in reach of the avatar
13. bombs in reach of the avatar may be picked up
14. when ball is dropped a countdown timer starts
15. pause button
16. when timer ends a scoring event is triggered
17. when bombs are dropped they give the timer UI, but times are all just 0
18. detonate button sets off all dropped bombs
19. expanding circle animation for dropped bombs
20. timer UI allows actual delays to be set
21. once detonate is pressed, can’t place any more bombs until all queued ones have exploded
22. explosions that touch /cover the ball cause a ‘pushed’ event on it
23. ball has simple movement data that animates the ball: direction, speed
24. ball movement decays towards 0 velocity / null vector in stages (each stage has a start loc, a target loc, and a speed; next stage is calced from speed and dir of previous stage)
25. a ball that goes out of bounds re-appears still near the place it left, and 3 strokes are added to the score
26. pushed events alter ball movement data
27. course has a target flag (add to course object definition and use a screen designation)
28. scoring event calculates a score and displays it
29. course has a tee area (add to course object definition and use a screen designation)
30. avatar starts in center of the tee area when play start
31. avatar cannot leave the tee area and cannot drop bombs (all except the ball are inactive)
32. 1 ball, dropped on a tee area (rect) - allows avatar to wander freely and to drop bombs
33. course has regions that are basic rect shapes: fairway, rough, green, sand trap (add to course definition and use screen designations)
34. speed of avatar movement affected by region
35. ball movement decay affected by region of each end stage
36. course has static obstacles: trees, shrubs which are circles
37. ball that hits an obstacle gets a bounce event
38. bounce event affects the ball movement data (random deflection and speed decrease)
39. different obstacles have different bounce effects (chance to happen, and effect when it does)
40. obstacles may be solid, in which case the avatar cannot pass through them, or passable in which case it slows the avatar down a lot
41. course has wall obstacles which are solid and have an angle
42. walls bounce the ball predictably
43. define several holes
44. when one hole is complete go on to the next
45. track hole scores across whole game
46. present summary of total score
47. use real avatar sprite - animate movement (vary by speed) and stationary; no directionality
48. directionality to avatar animation
49. use static images for bombs and ball
50. use explosion sprite (single animated sprite, scaled appropriately)
51. use bg images for regions? not sure if I can do this in JS...
52. use image for detonate button
53. use fuse image for ball timer
54. use image for flag
55. use image for obstacles
56. pretty title screen
57. pretty help / how-to screen
58. help button on play screen; pauses game, play button closes the screen and resumes play / unpauses
59. sounds placeholder / hook : avatar movement
60. sounds placeholder / hook : avatar movement on terrain / regions (tee, fairway, rough, green)
61. sounds placeholder / hook : ball drop
62. sounds placeholder / hook : bomb drop
63. sounds placeholder / hook : timer set
64. sounds placeholder / hook : bomb pickup
65. sounds placeholder / hook : detonate pressed
66. sounds placeholder / hook : bomb explodes (4 sizes)
67. sounds placeholder / hook : ball explodes / scoring
68. sounds placeholder / hook : ball hits bush obstacle
69. sounds placeholder / hook : ball hits tree obstacle
70. sounds placeholder / hook : ball hits wall obstacle
71. sounds placeholder / hook : ball ends movement stage
72. sounds placeholder / hook : ball hits flag
73. sounds placeholder / hook : golf clap
74. sounds placeholder / hook : button clicked
75. can find additional bombs on the course (drawn above terrain and below obstacles) (add to course definition)
76. explosions leave scorch marks on the course
77. obstacles have hit points
78. obstacles take damage from explosions
79. obstacles can be destroyed
80. avatar has a stun counter
81. avatar moves slower the more stunned it is
82. avatar loses stun over time
83. explosions that impact the avatar add stun
84. explosions that impact the avatar move it
85. explosions leave behind sand trap regions (size depends on size of the explosion)
86. in new sand trap regions bushes and walls are destroyed, then trees are turned into bushes
87. actual sounds in/at sound hooks
88. can find additional items around the course: extra time on the ball, temporary faster movement (energy drinks), permanent movement bonus (cleats), bonus points (???)
89. model ball height during movement to determine whether obstacles could be hit
90. model cumulative terrain damage to create sand trap regions instead of basic bomb->trap approach
91. and on and on and on and on...

Based on past experience I expect to get off track somewhere around step 2.