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DS development > What do you think about a Combat Flight Sim game for the DS?

#46549 - corsec - Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:15 am

I have been thinking about making a flight simulator for the DS for a little while now, and now I am seriously looking into buying the stuff I need to make it.

Short Description:
Gameplay from the old PC game of Aces High
Control style from MS Flight Simulator '95
Graphics, at least initially, from the original battle zone, with shading.

Controls:
The top screen is the view out the windshield. The d-pad is the stick, the shoulder buttons are the rudder, and the a-b-x-y buttons are weapons/talk, in some configurable way. The bottom screen holds all of the rest of the controls, like throttle, flaps, gear, fuel mixture, radar, radio, weapon selection. Voice communication using the mic and speakers for multiplayer and maybe online play would be pretty cool too.

Graphics:
Initially they would be a solid color for ground, sky, and pyramids for the planes. Later, I might use models made by a friend of mine for the airplanes, and textures for the sky and ground.

Gameplay:
I absolutely loved the gameplay from Aces High, so I will probably just do something similar.
There is more than one country in the world, and they are all at war, or some countries can be allied together. There are multiple bases per country, and each has bases that have anti-air defenses. The bases also provide a place for new planes to be launched, fueled and filled with ammo. To take over a base, you have to destroy the defenses surrounding the base, then drop paratroopers into the base. If the paratroopers take over the base, then it can be used by the country that took it over to launch air craft.

Multiplayer:
I would like to have ad-hoc multiplayer, and if possible, infrastructure play.

Reasons that this belongs on the DS:
The bottom screen will be similar to the cockpit on MS flight simulator '95, with controls that can be manipulated with the touchscreen.

Why I want to make this game:
I love flight simulators, but since my computers run Linux exclusively, I only play console games. The only good flight simulators on the ps2 are Sky Odyssey and GTA:VC or GTA:SA. I played Crimson Skies on the XBOX, but that game was terrible even compared to the original Crimson Skies.

Things I need help with:
Encouragement: I am doing this after I got rejected from the google Summer of Code.
Graphics: I made a program, in High School, that drew a sphere in Spherical Coordinates by converting spherical coords to 2-D, but that is just about the limit of my knowledge of 3D graphics. If there is a graphics toolkit for the DS, that would be helpful.
Homebrew Kit: I am going to read the other posts on making homebrew games, and then buy the Passme device.
Info on the DS specifics: I have programmed for several embedded devices before, from a Zilog single board computer network to a Sensor network in school.

To start out with, I want to make a program where you fly around a cube. Really, I think this would be a good first release.

#46570 - khan - Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:34 pm

i would love to see your work.

Keep up the good working, btw your project could make a great use of touch screen etc.

#46574 - Mr. Picklesworth - Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:00 pm

Yah, it would be pretty nice on a DS.
You could have a little weapon selection pad, etc...
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Thanks!
MKDS Friend Code: 511165-679586
MP:H Friend Code: 2105 2377 6896

#46576 - corsec - Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:30 pm

My idea is to set this game in early world war I, so the weapons are limited to possibly a forward firing machine gun, possibly without the interference limiter, small hand-droppable bombs, gernades, pistols, and chains.

But, that is so far from where I am now that my flying pyramids could turn into F-18s just as easily.

#46588 - corsec - Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:58 pm

http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~hustvedt/ds.html

This is just my description, reformatted, and a picture of an airplane model that is similar to what I will use

#46592 - natrium42 - Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:10 pm

corsec, this sounds like a game that I would actually play.
So I do encourage you to make it :)
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www.natrium42.com

#46618 - TJ - Tue Jun 28, 2005 4:46 am

Sounds awesome.

It is the find of game I thought of as soon as I saw the DS. The bottom screen would really be perfect for an interactive cockpit. It would work great for anything from WWII planes to starfighters.

Sadly, the only official flight "sims" that I have seen in the works for the DS use the lower screen as a radar.

#46619 - corsec - Tue Jun 28, 2005 4:57 am

I haven't decided whether to do a lock-on and tracking scheme like in Crimson Skies (the original, of course), a horizontal radar, or a 3d radar as in the Privateer series.

If I have a convenient button free, I will probably do the first one, since I found that way more convenient than trying to follow someone on a 2D radar. The 3D radar would probably break with the theme a bit too much.

I will probably just use the bottom screen for Speed, Fuel, Ammo left, Weapon switch, Throttle, maybe fuel mixture, radio.

I might get this made in a week or two, and have the cockpit part to show fairly soon, as this is just 2D buttons, and seems fairly easy.

#46648 - Mr. Picklesworth - Tue Jun 28, 2005 4:52 pm

Eeek! You have the same last name as me :D

Edit: Woops, that's the guy who did the models.
Still unexpected...
_________________
Thanks!
MKDS Friend Code: 511165-679586
MP:H Friend Code: 2105 2377 6896


Last edited by Mr. Picklesworth on Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

#46780 - Eclipse - Thu Jun 30, 2005 2:49 pm

I can easily make you some low poly planes if you need the help for this project. Just let me know if your serious about it and I would be more then happy to help. My e-mail is Eclips3@gmail.com

#46788 - corsec - Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:47 pm

Thanks for your offer.

The picture I have on my website ( http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~hustvedt/ds.html ) is of a model that was done by a friend of mine (Colin McCall), after I told him I was going to do this. He has done a significant amount of 3D modelling, and so I was going to base my game on a character he had created, but set in 1916.

However, right now I can't load models into a DS game, so once I have done that and know what I need, then I might ask you.