Fire in the Hole

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Synopsis:

Originally a gamejam game made in eight hours, this v2 release was a weeklong update and served as my introduction to python and pygame. During the gamejam, I wrote the background music and designed the levels (in text files), Andrew Dolce and Eric Li did code, and Eric also did all the art.

In the following week, I did all the code revisions to allow for smooth movement and digging, image caching (for faster loads), "trap" blocks (which become walls when dug through) and a more applicable countdown font. I also edited the images to provide controls, and a better interface. While this game could use a lot more work, it is functionally complete, and was a good introduction to the python programming language.

The story is that you are a "Snake"-like terrorist planting bombs underneath buildings. You must find the structural weakpoint, plant the bomb, and then run for dear life to the surface. Originally, we had planned that fire would crawl through the caverns after the bomb exploded, but we found a timer was equivalent and easier to implement under the limited time constraints.

Tech:

A lot of this game was hacked together (as it was my first python game), but some major tech was found in the image caching and fluid movement. The original game took a good fifteen seconds to load each level, because it created a separate image for each grid location. In v2, images were loaded by object type into class variables, and once cached the levels load instantly.

The tweens between cells were entirely based on math, and this early exposure to the complexity of animation led to later animation frameworks that were much easier to use. silen, sol(py), Sol, and Core all have increasingly powerful animation frameworks.

Team:

Greg Lane (Me) - Background Music, Level Design, v2 Programming

Andrew Dolce - v1 Programming (@ gamejam)

Eric Li - Art, v1 Programming (@ gamejam)

Gameplay Video:

Requirements:

Python 2.5 (cross platform, Mac and Windows)

Pygame 1.8.0 Win Mac (fullscreen lags with 1.8.1 --> 1.9.1, but otherwise works)

Note: Mac only has Pygame 1.8.1 or later - you'll have to play in windowed mode...