Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
to squeeze between the rocks and other types of space junk. The obstacles can be
of very complex shapes, and rotate chaotically in space; so, it is a task to avoid con-
tact with their fragments.
The space junk consists of objects of different size and mass. They are as follows:
•
Massive
: These arevarious big rocks, cargo containers, and large fragments
of crushed spaceships
•
Medium
: These are old satellites, medium containers, crates, meteors, and
small fragments of casing
•
Small
:Thesearelittlefragmentsofexplodedrocks,tinyparticlesofstardust,
and so on
The rocks are mostly awry spheres or ellipsoid with some craters on the surface.
They may also feature some peaks. Rare examples (really large ones) may have
large perforating tunnels; so, the player can try to fly through them. Generally, the
players know their own speed being fixed in space, but most of them can rotate
around an incidental axis. Containers as well as fragments of ships have the same
behavior. They are passive elements. They cannot attack the protagonist, follow him,
or intentionally change their position to collide with the Unit. The trickiest types of
obstacles are space flotsam and jetsam. Contrary to rocks and containers, they can
have very complex and bizarre geometry. Various traps can be made of them. By ro-
tating at unexpected angles, broken metallic trusses can be a captious barrier for the
player to pass through. A series of trusses rotating in opposite directions may create
a corridor of pendulums, a level design cliché, where the player needs to react fast.
The player has to pass various dangerous barriers such as sharp metallic blades,
heavy pendulums, and laser beams that are constantly moving. To force the player
to move into such a hazardous territory, other elements such as clusters of rocks and
anomalies can be used. They will block all ways except for the dangerous corridor.
There is also a stream of objects in the game. There is an endless flow of different
small obstacles at some levels. They can have different speed, density, and depth
(in most cases, they are pretty flat, only one row of elements). This is a non-trivial
barrier, requiring good pilot skills or active usage of the laser gun.
