Satellite Game
As an evolution from an old Scratch game I made, Shooty (opens in a new tab), I put together this simple 2D Astroid-like game.
Design
This is again really just a learner project, allowing me to experiment with new languages, design patterns, algorithms etc… The goal of Satellite was to allow me to learn some C# and game design. I wanted to incorperate a particle system, entity component system and physics engine.
I built Satellite with a XNA framework called Monogame (opens in a new tab).
Particles
Satellite features a particles system, generating the stars and the thrust effect behind the ships. The particle emitter is able to keep track of the age of each particle, allowing to change size, rotation, opacity and anything else about the particles as they age.
Here are the 2 ships and their respective effects:
The stars are also made using a particle effect.
ECS (Entity Component System)
To facilitate production, I implemented an Entity Component System (opens in a new tab). This allows to have many individual enities, to which I attach “components” such as health, position, or even a particle emitter. It is a bit of a homebrew implementation, as I simply took the concept and created it in the way I imagined.
Physics
This is where the project really slowed down. basic physics are incomperated into the game, but the issues arrised from collision. Finding and detecting collisions was implemented, along with basic linear collision, allowing ships to bounce off eachother, and eventually astroids or enemies. The problem was rotation. With my current knowledge of mechanics and math, a proper implemtation of angular collision would have been rather difficult and complicated. I wanted a collision like the following to result in the wing clipping the object in the way and spinning out the ship.
Future (Maybe)
If I get around to it, I’d like to implement the missing physics and flesh it out in terms of “being a game”. Currently it sits more as a demo with no objective or gameplay.
Made By Marcus Lee.