Infiltrator - Evolution and design

Eeks this project is getting old. The newest conceptualization of it was officiated in September of 2011. The original Infiltrator spawned in March that same year. This project is almost a year old. Unfortunately, all of that time was not devoted to progress. The project was restarted from scratch a twice before I finally hit my current design.

The problem is that I don't think any of you know what that design is. You have only seen the project unfolding in front of you. Since I've jumped into the pathfinding rabbit hole, and thus have no interesting progress to talk about, this is a good time to explain the concepts and ideas driving the project.

Lets talk influence. Undeniably, the first game to impact my design ideas surrounding Infiltrator was an old dos game called Solar Winds.

Solar winds was a space shooting simulator RPG adventure game. You flew around space visiting planets and ships, talking to other people and aliens in order to advance the plot. Of course, there were battle mechanics that you had to use, but they were trash. To be honest, the dialogue was sappy and poorly written, the plot wasn't that engaging, and the music would drive you insane after hearing it for long enough. I think I recognized potential though. The way this game was a shooter, but had way more to offer than just plowing through enemies really got me interested. I decided to make Infiltrator more puzzle and adventure based than the next game, which didn't so much influence infiltrator as it did use one of the concepts I was already thinking of.

That's right, the previously reviewed Steel Storm. This game basically used a concept much like mine for an overhead spaceship shooter with smooth FPS like controls. If you're curious, you can read my old review of it, although I can't vouch for my writing or reviewing skills back then.

The resulting design calls for a simple yet deep game with a more focused shooting engine than Solar Winds and a more adventure game/RPG focused engine than Steel Storm. The idea is that you will be able to collect keys, inventory items, upgrade your ship, and have rudimentary conversations allowing for choices, missions, and sidequests. Naturally, this is a pretty ambitious project, especially for one dude. When I started this project, I fully admitted that it was doomed to failure. I was just coding for fun, you know? But as it started to take shape and actually LOOK like it had playable mechanics, I started to forget that. Now that I've started digging into path-finding(since I finished damage mechanics,) I'm remembering just how futile this project really is.

Anyway, that about sums it up. The idea behind infiltrator is that it's a circle strafing top view maniac shooting adventure RPG puzzle game. With a hint of lime.

        --LazerBlade