README

This is the game Plan 10 From Outer Space!. It was developed in sync with the Javelin game engine for submission in the Udacity 255 HTML5 Game Development course contest. It was developed by RKdev and mysef, with sound contributed by Alkaizer.

For more on Javelin, see the Javelin repository. It's poorly documented for now, and probably has a few hacks for the sake of getting this game done for the contest. It's also missing a fair amount of features I didn't have time to implement for the contest.

Note: if you are going to build this repo yourself, there are some other files you'll need. You'll need javelin.js from the Javelin repo, which is also built with grunt. And you'll need box2d. It's best to take the version included w/ the gritsgame source. Both of these files should be placed in vendor/. Or, the easiest way to run a local working version is to just clone the gh-pages branch, which includes all of the necessary dependencies.

Controls

• w, a, s, d to move forwards/backwards and rotate
• shift + a and shift + d to strafe left/right
• j to fire bomb, press again to detonate
• k to fire black hole, press again to detonate
• escape to go back to splash screen (Note that actually doing this will cause problems with the audio :) )

Features!

• Epic story line spanning 70 years!
• Multiple endings!
• EXTREME GRAPHICS! (In some places, thanks to grits...)

Structure

Here's what you need to know about the structure of the files and code. There's some documentation in the code, but it may not be great, time was short.

The actual game is built with grunt, so the final code is in build/plan10.js, which is just the compressed version of everything under src/. vendor/ contains everything else that is not specific to the game, including Javelin and Box2d.

app.js instantiates the game, and wires some behavior to the elements on the page, and that's about it.

The actual game code is organized as such:

src/game.js - contains the main config for the game, which is passed to Javelin.Engine in app.js. This file also defines the subnamespaces that the rest of the game code uses. The config mostly contains values for the specific plugins to use in each scene.

src/scenes/ - This directory defines the scenes that the instance of Javelin.Engine can load. A scene is just a collection of initial game objects, and optional plugin configuration. Plugins can be configured on a per-scene basis, but there was no need for it in this demo game. The objects array can contain either object definitions, or strings, which are references to prefabs.

src/prefabs/ - This contains definitions for objects that are used in the various scenes. A prefab is just a named object structure, saved for reuse. If you're familiar with Unity3d's terminology, it's the same as that. Each object can have several properties, but the most important is the components property. That property defines what components should exist on the object, and how they should be configured.

src/components/ - This is where all the logic lives. All game code is defined in a component that gets attached to a game object. All of the components that are specific to this game are named with the plan10. prefix. All others, such as transform2d or sprite, are components provided by Javelin.

So, to recap - the game defines some config for the engine, then the engine loads a scene which instantiates game objects. Game objects are defined either in-line in a scene, or in a prefab. When the engine instantiates a prefab, it adds instances of components to it, and configures them based on the values in the object definition.

Known issues

• The physics w/ Box2d is not tuned well, the plugin for Javelin needs some modification to really work well
• everything related to sound
  • sounds holding over between scenes
  • sounds playing double when pre loaded
  • multiple sounds may trigger at once
  • generally the audio plugin in javelin needs to be fixed, it's not handling a lot of things properly
• instantiating bombs/black holes too close to another rigidbody (inside it, basically), will create many at once
  • For a neat bug, hold j and k together and enjoy the chaos

Backstory

Months ago I decided to write a game engine in javascript because I thought it would be fun, and I have two specific projects that I would like to pursue with it. I could have used another engine, but I couldn't find one that I particularly liked. I have some experience using Unity3d, and ultimately I wanted to be able approach a game the way I would with Unity3d, but use the same open-source toolkit I used for web development. So, I started Javelin.

Once I learned about the course (a week or two after I decided to actually start on the engine), I thought it would be a good opportunity to tackle specific issues. I figured the contest would give me a way to focus on getting the bare-minimum implemented in order to have a functioning, but simple, game. So... I needed a premise for a game.

My wife brought up saving the Earth from a meteor, and that immediately seemed like a good idea because the premise would be enough to build a game that demonstrated all, or most, of the concepts covered in the class, while not requiring many artistic assets.

Assets & Attribution

All images are under Creative Commons License on the Web, from GRITS, or original artwork.

Voices/sound effects are the work of Alkaizer

Original artwork was produced and other assets modified using Inkscape (http://inkscape.org)

Format: Asset Origin Attribution

/assets/monologue_image/script-04.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/The_Earth_seen_from_Apollo_17.jpg By NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-07.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2013_Russian_meteor_event_(Magnitogorsk).webm By Noo4891 (Пu1072 дu1077 нu1080 емu1077 тu1077 оu1088 иu1090 аМu1072 гu1085 иu1090 оu1075 оu1088 сu1082 ) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-08.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGemini_2.jpg Attribution not legally required By NASA [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-09.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMickey_Mouse_star_in_Walk_of_Fame.jpg By freshwater2006 [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-10.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJAXA_Space_Station_inside_1.jpg By Polimerek (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-11.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Asteroid_1.png By don't need [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/monologue_image/script-12.png && /assets/monologue_image/script-13.png Curt - cjc83486 http://opengameart.org/content/rpg-character CC-BY 3.0

/assets/lose.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABert2.png See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/win.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARepublic_of_Texas_Biker_Rally_Patriotism.jpg By Alex Thomson from Seattle, United States of America (Patriotism) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

/assets/starfield.png http://noise.png
300-1-100-monochrome.png

/assets/clapper.png

Image courtesy of ponsulak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

/assets/asteroid.png http://opengameart.org/content/asteroid-generator-and-a-set-of-generated-asteroids Jasper, from opengameart.org