My way-too-early game planning

[rdefabri]

Following on some good advice by @Mrshoujo in this thread:

I have been thinking about a game idea that I may ultimately try to create for the A8 platform.  The game is quite simple, and I think something like FastBasic or Mad Pascal would be perfect for it.

 

Without revealing much, I pretty much know the gameplay, how it should go.  As I need a lot of time to re-learn the platform as well as how to code it, I want to get some "way-too-early" input on how this could potentially be implemented.

 

Specifically, the field of play, graphic mode(s), colors, PMG, etc.  I'm trying to determine what would work best and make implementation as easy as possible.

 

The game would require one, maybe two, missiles for the "enemy".  I'd need some kind of pointer / cross-hair (think the pointer in Eastern Front), that I think would be a player.  Only the enemy missile would need any sort of animation, the cross-hair would move around on a grid in step-like fashion.

 

There would be objects on the field of play that need to change shape and color.  Not animated, but as they degrade, they change size and color - also in a step-like fashion. 

 

The best way I could explain this would be something like Yar's Revenge.

 

Although the game idea is nothing at all like Yar's Revenge, the field of play elements are there.  The enemy that chases the Yar is like the enemy in my game idea.  It moves around, but it's a simple missile - maybe even a 1x1 or something.  The cross-hair (player) is more like the Yar.  Not so-much the movement, but a different color and size from the enemy.  The field of play is static, but would change state as noted above - something like the shield that protects the Qotile in Yar's Revenge.  When the Yar "eats" the shield, the color changes from orange to black.

 

Instead of the shield turning orange to black, the objects in my game would get smaller and then turn a different shade of orange to red.  They might need to pulsate when they get to be particularly small, so I'm guessing that would need to be another PMG (although I'm hoping not).

 

I think I would need these objects to have a "normal" state color, and then 2-3 "changed" state colors.  There would also need to be some kind of explosion or "enemy hit" state, that I guess would also need to be some sort of PMG.

 

I don't need hi-resolution, but I need as many colors as I can get without doing anything too fancy.  So some questions (apologies if I haven't provided enough detail just doing some early thinking about this):

 

- What is the best graphics mode to use for something like this?  As a side note, the PMGs can be single color.

- Would the static objects that change state need to be PMG or could they just be redrawn in the changed state?

- When you hit the enemy, it would explode with some minor animation - would that be best as a PMG?  Or is it easier to do it another way?

 

I know these are simplistic questions with minimal context...but this helps me to start planning...thoughts?

[TGB1718]

I would think for the background, using OS mode 4 (BASIC mode 12), gives you 4/5 multi-coloured characters.

Using DLI's you can change the colours as and when you want.