Post by Jay Luo on Dec 14, 2013 18:02:47 GMT -5
Sub Command is an arcade-style submarine game where you shoot ships with torpedoes. It is written for the iPhone with iOS 7 or better, using Objective C with SpriteKit.
I'd like to think the game shows you how to play, but in case it is not obvious:
Some designer notes:
Hope you enjoy the game!
I'd like to think the game shows you how to play, but in case it is not obvious:
- Turn the phone to landscape mode to play (i.e. the screen is facing you while you are looking forward at it, and is longer than it is wide).
- Tilting the phone left (i.e. rotating the phone counterclockwise around the center of the screen) will make your submarine turn to the left.
- Tilting the phone right (i.e. rotating the phone clockwise around the center of the screen) will make your submarine turn to the right.
- Tilting the phone down (turning the phone so the screen is pointing upwards and you look down on the phone) will make your submarine dive. You mainly want to dive in order to avoid depth charges.
- Tilting the phone up (turning the phone so the screen is pointing towards you while you are looking forward at it) will make your submarine surface.
- Scan the horizon for ships to shoot at. You can also use the sonar screen in the lower left corner.
- Tapping the screen will fire a torpedo. You can have a maximum of five torpedoes moving at once.
- All ships are enemies. They move at varying speeds, speeding up as the game goes on. You need to time your torpedoes so they hit the moving ship.
- Some ships take multiple hits to sink, some only one. They award score equal to their tonnage.
- Some ships will move towards you, then move away and eventually vanish.
- Some ships will move towards you and start dropping depth charges. A klaxon will sound when depth charges are incoming. Dive to avoid them!
- If you are hit by a depth charge, you lose 30 seconds from the game timer.
- The game ends when the game timer runs out.
- Adjusting the phone volume (or muting the phone entirely) will also adjust the game volume.
Some designer notes:
- I tried to use historical WW2 ship silhouettes and ship names for targets, because I dig that stuff.
- Development of this game was inspired by the old Sea Wolf arcade game, which I used to love. Also I thought it would be a straightforward first project.
- I really wanted to make this game cost a quarter to play (like a traditional arcade game), but the smallest non-zero price the store allows is 99 cents, and I didn't want to make it completely free since, well, it would be nice to pretend to have earned some money from the effort invested in writing the game.
- There's never any actual "forward" movement, you're only rotating in place and diving/surfacing.
- Both ships and torpedoes travel a lot faster in this game than they do in real life. I thought a faster paced game would be more fun than accurate physical behavior.
- I considered adding friendly ships or hospital ships that you have to avoid shooting, but really, what fun is a ship you can't shoot?
Hope you enjoy the game!
