State of 'AlphaHack'

I was friendlily requested to do a little presentation about my current hobby project. Thx Grimmy :) Most of these will appear on GGE... as soon as they figure out how they want to implement the blogging.
So 'AlphaHack' is my first prototype and tech. demo of the engine I'm developing. Its basically just going to be a zombie survival game set within a very basic town. Zombie AI is easy. :P
The engine, which is called PixelHorizon, is very simple and is geared towards diverse gameplay rather then next gen. graphics. And seeing as I'm not an artist this suits me just fine. :)
Ok so whats in the engine:
  • LUA scripted deep integration.
  • ODE driven physics.
  • Goal driven AI system for 'actors'.
  • Commander level AI for grouped 'actors'.
  • A* Pathing using both graph and grid.
  • Complex environments through simple 'room' concepts but dynamic interaction.
  • Neuron based messaging system.
  • Entity/Map construction, AI management and Event handling via scripts.
And that's the basics, its actually a lot more complex but everything normally is. :) I'm currently busy with:
  • AI Sensory memory.
  • Attack/Targeting module.
  • ... and then ...
  • Create more goals for the AI and Commanders
  • ... and then ...
  • Damage module.
Currently my development method is 'get it done!'. I've been working on 'game engines' for far.. far... FAR too long and need to show something for all that time spent. So the prototype is more of a goal, I dream if you will, to reach, to pull something solid out of my typing.

But like I said I want to post more details on Great Games Experiment as well as a running development log but they don't have the facilities to do it blog-style... yet...

A lot of concepts and ideas where 'procured' from Mat Buckland's book Programming Game AI by Example. It shows you how to create a game. Not just concepts and tech. gibber-gabber but an actual working game. Learned so much. Thank Mat where ever you are.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome, can't wait so see a demo ;)

Unknown said...

Thanks Grimmy, I'm aiming for a small tech. demo for the end of this month (Sept.), no graphics, just debug info. :) Just a proof of sanity...