#godscar

Around the time I was writing the previous post, shortly afterwards I made some leaps on how I would design the game engine of Melee. Really I just came to conclude that a traditional engine would not cut it, it would need to be a scripted engine that is lightweight, extensible and can arbitrarily define the game behavior with as little restriction or performance loss as possible.

As it happens Lua is the answer - I came across it early on in my programming experience, but didn't think much of it at the time. Years later it's features (or lack of) are precisely what I needed; Lua functions as an embedded scripting language, effectively substituting any machine-code / compiled code with (in my opinion) the smallest, usable functional and data-processing programming language.

Godsource is effectively a C++ program with graphics, sound and other essential machine-code bindings, like a typical engine. Unlike a typical engine it does not put these subsystems together in C++ aside from putting them in scope of eachother - instead the C++ side rushes to give full control to Lua, allowing Lua to control the entirety of the game engine. It is due to Lua's lack of domain-specific constructs that let the engine be defined in terms of subsystems alone, leaving most of the engine architecture up to the author of a game.

The engine is still nowhere ready but I am working on it actively here. Feel free to drop me a line if you think you might be interested in it or want early access to beta versions, or just have questions about it. I do plan on releasing most of the Lua source for the engine, for others to make their own games, but any profit of said games and I do ask for written permission from me first.

Games I am working on that are using this engine:

Terra Zero - Spaceship shooter game, emphasis on customizing the spaceships.

Godscar / Project Melee - Free-form fantasy melee combat game (see previous post).

The idea as it is now borrows from the likes of Dragon Ball, Fairy Tale, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach (all manga and anime), Magicka, Mirrors Edge, Oni (indie games), ESF, The Specialists (CS 1.6 mods), and the list doesn't end there, probably (I can't recall all of it if I tried).

Conceptually it is still a free-form close combat game (hence why it's called Project Melee). The number of animations is set but they are defined in a way that makes them different depending on timing and aim. Principle is that attacks or movements that require no effort or planning is not representative of skill, while the particulars of executing a movement or attack should be available for tweaking / manipulation if desired without much extra hassle.

On top of the close-combat, there will be a magic system along the lines of how Magicka does it (with ideally equal emphasis on magic and regular attacks/movements). However I found that simply the combination of magic elements is not enough variety, so the order of element charges will matter as well. The number of spell 'methods' will also increase (ie, the number of ways to use the summoned charges) - regular attacks can utilize any spell combination, as well as self-casting, AOE casting, aimed casting and blocking/shielding.

I suppose the official name for this game would be: Godscar

Stage 1 will be the design of the physics engine and graphics engine, the framework of the rest of the game engine.

Stage 2 will commence with the character animation design.

Stage 3 will begin to introduce magic to the gameplay

Stage 4 will review the graphics, add sound and add polish to the visuals in general. This stage will also add character design beyond the physical shape.

Stage 5 and beyond is not certain as yet, but likely will have NPC design as well as level design, all to the shape of what type of end-goal the game will have. If there is to be multiplayer, it will be considered in this stage and possibly implemented here, if not in Stage 6.