BZFlag for DS!
Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:30 am
I dunno whether anyone has thought about it, but wouldn't it be cool if BZFlag could be on the Nintendo DS? My friends and I came up with the controls, set ups, and everything, taking into effect the all the specs. of the DS. I will show you below what these are, and I've even made an edited pic of what it would look like!
First of all, the DS has two screens, so it was pretty reasonable to use the top for the 3-D action, and the bottom for the radar. I have good coordination between these two, (thanks to MKDS) and my friends thought it was also reasonable. Each screen had only 256 x 192 pixels, so it's really hard to squeeze in everything. We came up with the best set-up and here it is (Full size too):
Top Screen:
Bottom Screen:
Now I will explain everything on the screens, and the controls and features in detail:
BZFlag DS could take advantage of the Surround Sound, and the Microphone (Chatting with voice like in Metroid Prime Hunters).
On the top screen, you'll see your score in big letters, and then each player's names and scores, plus their flags, and the little symbols.
The number of shots you have is located on the left side of the screen.
Your flag, if any, will be shown in the lower left hand side of the screen, and the current status of your tank on the right.
The bottom screen has a dashed box, which is where your stylus goes to tell the tank to stop (Like with the mouse, eh?). The bigger box is the box that lets you go far as you put your stylus farther out. On the upper-left hand side, is a little glasses/binoculars symbol (can't draw on comp.!) that lets you of course, snipe with lasers, and zoom in. The plus and minus signs in the lower-left hand corner are to zoom in and out of the radar to see more or less. The question mark is where the flag label is to tell you what the held flag does. We realized if too much text got in the way, it would irritate many, so pushing this will make the text appear for flag hint, and pushing it again will make it disappear.
We think that the Nintendo WFC can be used to play online. The largest amount of players will most likely be up to 8 tanks, with a lag of 300 or so. We also think that servers that only limit 8 players will automatically be seen on the server list, and that people can create an alternative server for just DS players.
Other features we thought might be cool were multi-card local play, with up to 8 players/bots. Single-card play which is limited to 4 tanks (like I said before, we made sure the game can handle stuff), and then there's a single player mode with bots that you can set a level of skill (1-10). My friends thought it would be cool to create maps easily with the touchscreen, but I came in and said that it would be hard to integrate code with servers, and that nintendo would've had to provide the servers for you to host them on, so that was gone, but maybe the game could just create maps reading its own code, so you can still play local play with created maps. We also think that random maps would be established if there was no map specified. Custom controls should also be an added feature so that you can change it, just like the BZFlag right now! Also, you can change the effects that happen throughout the game in a similar interface like the one on BZFlag!
We also found another hurdle to jump over... Memory. Of course, BZFlag uses textures and quite a few servers used them. Usually around 1 MB or less would work out for the DS, but some servers have more, and you would want to be able to play there, so we decided that you should be able to buy a memory expansion pack that fits in your GBA slot, (Of course, we took this from the DS Online Browser) so you can have maybe up to 30 MB of extra memory! Plenty more to play on any server.
But I still haven't explained the controls, so I'll do that now.
We came up with a very suitable set up for playing the game on the DS. We made up two sets of controls, Touchscreen and Button modes. Whichever is most suitable, (Depending on whether you use keyboard or mouse alot), will make you choose the more appropriate choice.
Touchscreen Controls
Obviously, you have the touchscreen to move in the box.
You tap the touchscreen and youll shoot unless you push one of the buttons on-screen.
Your left hand is available to hold the let hand side of the DS naturally, which has the "L" button and the D-pad.
The "L" button does the same thing as right-clicking on the mouse, viewing/locking onto your opponent.
The D-pad up button will make you jump,
and D-pad Down lets you drop flag.
You can change these settings in the custom keys menu I talked about above.
Button Controls
The D-pad lets you move.
The "B" button is used to shoot.
The "L" button still locks on.
The "R" button will let you jump. (Easily accessible while shooting)
The "X" button drops flag (Not used often)
The "Y" button zooms the radar out.
The "A" button zooms it in.
The "Start" button is used for binoculars, and the "Select" button is used to bring up the info box about the flag labels.
Now you may be wondering, if all the controls are used, where's the button to exit? Well, if you press "Start" 3 times in repeated succession, it'll bring up a menu similar to the one when you press the Escape key. (Except it'll be touch-controlled!)
As you can see, I just wanted to tell everyone about my idea (and with the help of my friends!) helped give an idea of what the game could be like if BZFlag could be on the DS. We took almost everything into thought, and we hope you'll like our ideas. Nevertheless, whether you think this is a cool idea, or a lame one, share your opinion, I'm willing to hear what you think!
First of all, the DS has two screens, so it was pretty reasonable to use the top for the 3-D action, and the bottom for the radar. I have good coordination between these two, (thanks to MKDS) and my friends thought it was also reasonable. Each screen had only 256 x 192 pixels, so it's really hard to squeeze in everything. We came up with the best set-up and here it is (Full size too):
Top Screen:
Bottom Screen:
Now I will explain everything on the screens, and the controls and features in detail:
BZFlag DS could take advantage of the Surround Sound, and the Microphone (Chatting with voice like in Metroid Prime Hunters).
On the top screen, you'll see your score in big letters, and then each player's names and scores, plus their flags, and the little symbols.
The number of shots you have is located on the left side of the screen.
Your flag, if any, will be shown in the lower left hand side of the screen, and the current status of your tank on the right.
The bottom screen has a dashed box, which is where your stylus goes to tell the tank to stop (Like with the mouse, eh?). The bigger box is the box that lets you go far as you put your stylus farther out. On the upper-left hand side, is a little glasses/binoculars symbol (can't draw on comp.!) that lets you of course, snipe with lasers, and zoom in. The plus and minus signs in the lower-left hand corner are to zoom in and out of the radar to see more or less. The question mark is where the flag label is to tell you what the held flag does. We realized if too much text got in the way, it would irritate many, so pushing this will make the text appear for flag hint, and pushing it again will make it disappear.
We think that the Nintendo WFC can be used to play online. The largest amount of players will most likely be up to 8 tanks, with a lag of 300 or so. We also think that servers that only limit 8 players will automatically be seen on the server list, and that people can create an alternative server for just DS players.
Other features we thought might be cool were multi-card local play, with up to 8 players/bots. Single-card play which is limited to 4 tanks (like I said before, we made sure the game can handle stuff), and then there's a single player mode with bots that you can set a level of skill (1-10). My friends thought it would be cool to create maps easily with the touchscreen, but I came in and said that it would be hard to integrate code with servers, and that nintendo would've had to provide the servers for you to host them on, so that was gone, but maybe the game could just create maps reading its own code, so you can still play local play with created maps. We also think that random maps would be established if there was no map specified. Custom controls should also be an added feature so that you can change it, just like the BZFlag right now! Also, you can change the effects that happen throughout the game in a similar interface like the one on BZFlag!
We also found another hurdle to jump over... Memory. Of course, BZFlag uses textures and quite a few servers used them. Usually around 1 MB or less would work out for the DS, but some servers have more, and you would want to be able to play there, so we decided that you should be able to buy a memory expansion pack that fits in your GBA slot, (Of course, we took this from the DS Online Browser) so you can have maybe up to 30 MB of extra memory! Plenty more to play on any server.
But I still haven't explained the controls, so I'll do that now.
We came up with a very suitable set up for playing the game on the DS. We made up two sets of controls, Touchscreen and Button modes. Whichever is most suitable, (Depending on whether you use keyboard or mouse alot), will make you choose the more appropriate choice.
Touchscreen Controls
Obviously, you have the touchscreen to move in the box.
You tap the touchscreen and youll shoot unless you push one of the buttons on-screen.
Your left hand is available to hold the let hand side of the DS naturally, which has the "L" button and the D-pad.
The "L" button does the same thing as right-clicking on the mouse, viewing/locking onto your opponent.
The D-pad up button will make you jump,
and D-pad Down lets you drop flag.
You can change these settings in the custom keys menu I talked about above.
Button Controls
The D-pad lets you move.
The "B" button is used to shoot.
The "L" button still locks on.
The "R" button will let you jump. (Easily accessible while shooting)
The "X" button drops flag (Not used often)
The "Y" button zooms the radar out.
The "A" button zooms it in.
The "Start" button is used for binoculars, and the "Select" button is used to bring up the info box about the flag labels.
Now you may be wondering, if all the controls are used, where's the button to exit? Well, if you press "Start" 3 times in repeated succession, it'll bring up a menu similar to the one when you press the Escape key. (Except it'll be touch-controlled!)
As you can see, I just wanted to tell everyone about my idea (and with the help of my friends!) helped give an idea of what the game could be like if BZFlag could be on the DS. We took almost everything into thought, and we hope you'll like our ideas. Nevertheless, whether you think this is a cool idea, or a lame one, share your opinion, I'm willing to hear what you think!