[WIP] Family U.F.O.

[Fort Apocalypse]

Please let me know if you have any ideas or feedback!

 

Game story:

 

Up late at night on ForSale looking for a family vehicle, you come across a post for a used U.F.O. for $100. You decide "What the heck. Let's get it." After paying for it, you and your family hop on board the U.F.O. and start driving. Janet accidentally knocks over the stability crystal, and you soon realize there are no brakes. You also have to depress a button to decrease anti-gravity, or it will keep bouncing off of the atmosphere. The 42 pieces of levitating crystals to stop the darn thing also flew out the window as you were trying to learn how to steer, and the whole thing starts blinking when you are close to one. Janet's got her first day of school in the morning, so you need to find the crystals, and then go shopping for her. The new family U.F.O. is a real flop!

 

 

 

 

family_ufo_0.6.bas family_ufo_0.6.bas.bin

Edited April 11, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

First release.

 

This has been some weeks in the making, with this being the fourth pivot of story and gameplay, and the crystal search was an E.T.-like addition, because the initial goals were for another game, and were a little lofty for me. This version plays like two small pieces of steak eaten too quickly.

Known problems:

 

The code needs clean-up. U.F.O. floppiness is silly rough, so it's like a mix of a game-and-watch Flappy Bird knock-off and 2600 Empire Strikes Back scrolling. The search for crystals can be too long or too short. It's frustrating getting the crystals. The colors and mid-game screensaver-like color changes are atypical for 2600 games. The terrain has a lot of mesas, and they don't always behave, though sometimes on purpose after getting a crystal, since it teleports you, but that's unintuitive. Level selection only increases the number of crystals you've captured, without difficulty changes. Resetting the game can set score to 42, then you win, over and over, so you have to turn it off an on to play again.

 

floppy_ufo_0.1.bas interactive_clover_1.0.bas.bin

Edited April 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Fixed:

Don't automatically win after game reset

Reset works during game

Don't mess with terrain as much after get crystal

Allow crystal to be closer

 

Added:

Sound when get crystal

Sound when rise after win

Periodic randomized theme music in splash screen

 

floppy_ufo_0.2.bas floppy_ufo_0.2.bas.bin

[Fort Apocalypse]

Added:

Weather balloon / helicopter interfere at different levels

 

 

 

floppy_ufo_0.3.bas floppy_ufo_0.3.bas.bin

Edited April 9, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Name fixed

family_ufo_0.4.bas family_ufo_0.4.bas.bin

[Fort Apocalypse]

Fixes:

No inverted mesa when start

No scrolling of splash

Made music stranger

Added Family UFO splash

No more balloon Moon

family_ufo_0.5.bas family_ufo_0.5.bas.bin

[Fort Apocalypse]

Fixes:
Maybe fixed terrain drawing

 

Added:

U.F.O. is now colored black

U.F.O. color changes when crashing
Music and effects created by joystick in splash screen

Difficulty switches affect crystal height and width

Added Easter Egg to get a very high score (first to screenshot and reply to this thread with it becomes a Family U.F.O. Hero)

 

family_ufo_0.6.bas family_ufo_0.6.bas.bin

Edited April 11, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse