Play game here:
http://www.hackrva.org/moonDefender/
Moon Defender is one a of a recent series of quick&fun group projects made at hack. First there was "Hack The Dragon", then "Inflatable Tube Sculpture", then the "Ziptie 'Mantrap' Hammock".
After completing the hammock - that night we were all saying, "what's next". Someone spoke up and said, lets make a game-jam style video game. We started jotting down ideas on into the night, getting more ludicrous as we went.
We decided on the idea of aliens stealing the moon and the general population of earth not really caring - Except one man: MOON DEFENDER!
We reconvened the next Saturday with a plan. Eli did a coding-fugue-state move and stamped out the raw guts + inkscape skills - one concept he implemented from the brainstorm session was the gravity effected bullets and enemies. Dustin kicked in at the edges of the code, made the music and sfx, then helped with graphics and story. Aaron (me) did some vector graphics and story boarding based on the the prior weeks brainstorm as well as the basic level designs.
We were moving along nicely, but it was an ugly mess too. Then Matt swooped in and LAID DOWN THE LAW (or at least some structure). He refactored the code, broke everything into workable pieces, made the github, and generally orchestrated its completion by fixing bugs and continuing the brunt of code work. He also created the humorous intro screen which features hackrva quotes harvested from the hackrva slack channel (one of my favorite features - just keep hitting that refresh).
It took another 10 days or so to work out bugs and get some other touches in place, But - FINISHED.
Let's be honest; the game is basic (though it was straight-up written in js - no wimpy game engine help here). The story is whack. The graphics are whatever. There's plenty of room for improvement.
But, we once again blurred that line between work and play, created another project with friends, and learned some new things. I mean damn, we made a game right?! Check that off the bucket list thing.
This is a making story is so common at hackrva that it's normal to us. Almost non-noteworthy. But I described the process a bit for those that haven't had the experience. This is what we do.
Finally:
If you do play moon defender: DON'T TRUST ROBO CLOWN WASHINGTON!
The game can be played here:
http://www.hackrva.org/moonDefender/
The game github can be found here:
https://github.com/Matt5sean3/moon-defender
Enjoy earth humans.
