Character movement (like starfox the first one)
by Donald "Yadot" Harris · in Torque Game Engine · 05/01/2006 (12:01 pm) · 7 replies
Not sure of the buzz word that goes along with this but, I want to create a game with movement like starfox. Where the character is constally moved forward and can only move along the X and Y as Z is moved for them. How would I go about setting something like that up. Also is there anything special I need to do with the level? and the enemies that the player does kill?
#2
05/01/2006 (6:41 pm)
Kyahahahah Space Harrier. Sin and Punishment rules though. At the most basic level, you would make it so the player only has their strafe movement, and have their foward movement automated/handled by code. If it's in space, you make the up/down keys move them up down and turn off gravity. I would defintiely use a player and not a vehicle even if it was a space shooter setup. Getting the basic restricted aiming isn't _that_ hard actually, I have it in my game when running on walls. If you look up the resource for torso twisting, and setup the look animations on a ship or player right, you could easily have them "turn" where you're aiming, without having them move there (like in Star Fox).
#3
05/02/2006 (4:46 am)
I see, this looks like it will be a challenge for me. Awesome... I will look into that resource. Seeing that game Sin and Punishment makes me wish I had more time to play more games. I have never heard of that one before. I guess no one else has done something like this with the restricted movement? Do either of you know the buzz word for it?
#4
05/02/2006 (6:04 am)
Such games are often called "on the rails" shooters.
#5
05/02/2006 (8:24 am)
Cool I only found one other thread. Hopefully I will get some info from it. 
#6
The Panzer Dragoon games (excluding Saga) are also very fun. PD and PD:Zwei were for the Saturn and Orta for the XBox. I liked the ability to check the sides in PDO. Fun, fun stuff!
05/02/2006 (8:38 am)
Rail shooters are fun. I used to hate them (why I don't know) but have gained quite the appreciation for them. S&P only had a Japanese release for the N64 and was rare for quite a while. Now you can pick it up used for a fairly good price in most used import shops (you will also need to pick up a $10 or so cart convertor). It's one of my favorite rail shooters, though. It has some of the worst voice-acting in a game, though (not as bad as Martian Gothic, though). But the story is all in English and the controls are simple enough to figure out that it makes it a very import-friendly title.The Panzer Dragoon games (excluding Saga) are also very fun. PD and PD:Zwei were for the Saturn and Orta for the XBox. I liked the ability to check the sides in PDO. Fun, fun stuff!
#7
05/02/2006 (9:05 am)
I hear you. I love the old star fox game and I wanted to start a simple project with my team to help us gell together. Hopefully I can find some info some where and get it going. 
Associate Manoel Neto
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Yes, there's a bunch of "special" things you must do to do a game like that, because it's a bit different than the TGE demo game. You'll need to modify the movement code in the player class, to limit it's movement along a path, maybe changing the way aiming is handled, and maybe some camera changes as well. I can't really give any further help than this, since it's not like baking a cake.