Game Dev Engine #5. Keyboard Input.

[@Xonatron]

This is awesome.

[@JDoucette]

The slower pace of a single shot reminds me of how cool it was to see the next wave in TI Invaders. Also, displaying this little mini-game in a window reminds me how you can have neat little add-ons to larger game, like Geometry Wars -- and they can be fun as-is. Once I showcase the mouse and gamepad input systems, I plan to show this game again in multiple windows playing the same game, using 3 or perhaps 4 different controls (keyboard left, keyboard right, gamepad, and maybe mouse). Interesting how this becomes trivial within a good architecture.

[@Milleniumhunter]

This is so cool! It really tickles my retro nostalgia brain. I had an idea for a sprite stacked tycoon game (allows for free rotation but keeping sprite aesthetics) and these in-game windows would be aesthetically perfect for that. Are you using a custom made font? Either way love it

[@JDoucette]

Tickling the retro nostalgia brain is exactly what I was going for, and what I love. My plan is to keep producing this engine and showcase it with more of these mini-games. I have never tried the sprite stacking method, but I did arrive at this method myself in a different perspective: to allow for 3D-ish vehicles and trees in a Pseudo 3D racing game, where typically all objects are sprites. Why not have multiple sprites and give them some depth?

[@JDoucette]

Yes -- that's my own custom font. Thanks! :) I was inspired by the font used in the 1981 arcade game, Defender. I have just over 50 custom fonts I've made, and I'm really digging this one. I'll showcase them all soon.

[@JDoucette]

The windowing system was sort of an accident -- I wanted to present components of my engine, and found myself avoiding hard-coding displays, going down a path to programmatically handle it, and realized I was making a windowing system. So I just did it fully. And now that I have this tech, it is so useful! So easy to connect to, and allow user manipulation to showcase many views of things -- You're right that it would be useful in a resource / tycoon game. Maybe a new Civilization! :)