Inspiration
When we found out that the theme for this hackathon was space, we knew we had to center our project around Elon Musk as an homage to his contribution to both space exploration and the technology industry. Then, we decided to create a game, as we are both passionate about gaming and this hackathon was a great opportunity to learn how to develop games.
What it does
The game is a retro shoot'em up, in the style of Space Invaders gameplay-wise. It opens with a cutscene intro that sets the story and is followed by one level in which the player character shoots down enemy spaceships, and finally a boss battle, similar to a bullet-hell level common in this genre of gaming.
How we built it
We built the game using GameMaker Studio 2, using their proprietary coding language. We created most visual assets in Photoshop, but also used some from open-source asset repositories.
Challenges we ran into
We noticed 10 hours into the hack that our trial version of GameMaker only allows you to create 15 objects, 15 sprites and 5 rooms, which was way too low for our initial scope. We had to rethink our class structures and rescope our desired features.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Having a minimum viable product that works despite unexpected events and mental breakdowns.
What we learned
Check limitations of trial versions before starting a project. Game development is harder than it seems.
What's next for Musk Invaders
Adding more levels, each with a boss at the end + a final plot-twist boss. Also, a scoring system and visible health bars.
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