Suicide Burn

Suicide Burn

Ok, so I did the whole Project Boost game thing, but my creation wasn’t very inspiring. So I decided to use what I’d learned (and a few other things I’d picked up elsewhere) to build a slightly different game, which I’m calling “Suicide Burn”, based on the same sort of technique that SpaceX uses to land the first stage either on land or on the barge.

So this very simple, single level game gives you the stage 1 rocket just before the landing burn at an altitude of around 2.5km (the starting height is randomised but around this height), and offset from the barge by a random amount too. You control the rotation (in one axis - the game was a bit too difficult if I tried two axes!) and the thrust. Unlike Project Boost, you increase or decrease thrust. The idea is simply to land the rocket stage on the barge. Be careful to control your speed - if you touch down faster than 1.5m/s, you will crash. And keep an eye on that fuel!

The level reloads 3 seconds after landing or crashing with a new randomised start position.

Link

http://www.sharemygame.com/share/ad6abe2e-50f5-4169-afd6-79dbe6e1d7c5

Keys

Q - increase thrust
A - decrease thrust
Left Arrow - rotate left
Right Arrow - rotate right
P - pause game

UI Hints

X Position - shows your position from the centre of the barge. If the number is negative, rotate to the right. If it is positive, rotate to the left. This will thrust in that direction to move the rocket towards the barge.

Vertical speed - as you near the barge, reduce the vertical speed by increasing thrusting to less than -1.5m/s.

Fuel - you have a limited quantity of fuel, so don’t burn too early, don’t slow down too much too early.

Video

Notes

I don’t plan on releasing this game or doing a lot more development on it - it’s just a learning process for me at the moment, but any comments or criticisms welcome!

It’s a bit of a rough game because I put it together in about 2 hours.

Hi, I liked the idea of applying the game concept to the real world. I have following comments:

  1. The target must be visible, how can you steer the rocket if you cant see where it’s supposed to land? a view from above might be better for this.
  2. need more stuff there, like ships and landing explosions etc.
  3. the exhaust graphics are too big, cant see the ship.

Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated. As I say, this is just a very basic game at the moment - whether I turn it into something more will depend on how much time I have available. In response to your suggestions:

  1. There is a UI which tells you if you are left or right of the target (the X Position). Ok, it’s not currently the most user friendly, and could be turned into a graphic instead, but at the moment I don’t know enough about the UI system to do that. I personally like the idea of “flying blind” and relying on numbers or graphics to tell you if you’re on target, but obviously what I like isn’t as important as what the people who play the game like! I like the idea of a view from above. Is it possible in Unity to have a split screen or picture-in-picture to show two different views at the same time?
  2. I agree. This was literally a game I threw together in about 2 hours using what I’d learned in the Project Boost part of the course, and I haven’t had any time to go back to it since. I may do once I’ve finished the course.
  3. Yeah, I used the particle assets from Project Boost. I tried scaling the appropriately, but couldn’t figure out how, and didn’t have enough time to spend on it. It’s something that I would definitely fix if I do ever get back to fleshing out the project.

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