Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Creating an Optimized Post-Retro Game
In this chapter, we will be creating a post-retro game. This genre of modern game takes a classic
retro idea and improves it for the modern age. Two good examples of this are Bit Trip Beat and
Geometry Wars. In Bit Trip Beat, the classic game Pong is re-created and combined with modern
rhythm-based music gameplay to create an instant modern classic. In Geometry Wars, the
classic game Asteroids is given a new coat of paint, a new set controls, a larger scrolling play
field, and heart-pumping music to create a game that modern audiences enjoy as much as the
classic game.
In this chapter, we will create our own post-retro game, or retro-evolved game to use the phrase
coined by Geometry Wars. Our game will also be based on Asteroids. We will focus our technical
efforts on creating an optimized screen-based blit scrolling game. The screen-based scrolling
engine we will create doesn't use tiles (as in Drive She Said) but uses a screen-sized window
area to display the viewable portion of the larger game world.
We will also focus on some optimizations for rendering speed and memory consumption. The
techniques in this chapter can be applied to games on any platform that supports the Flash
Player. Some techniques are better suited for memory consumption limits and some for render
and execution speed. We are going to discuss how to use both for the game in this chapter. You
will want to carefully consider which techniques to employ based on the platform your game will
be targeted at.
Understanding post-retro games
Many people have the sense these days that the concept of retro games is disappearing. This
does not mean that there are no retro-inspired games being made, but it means that “retro” has
been enveloped into the mainstream and does not really exist any longer as its own genre. Retro
is mainstream. At E3 2009, games that would have been shoved off into far corners and
dismissed as retro in years past were right up front (i.e., Super Mario Wii, Nostalgia, and Final
Fantasy VII). This proved that the term “retro” is so all-encompassing that it means almost
nothing if applied to these games. These are just games (good games, mind you) and are tagged
