The Purpose of The Tower
Game
The story in the preceding
section helps to set the mood for
"The rooad of warrior"
and provides
a way for the player to be in a small village located by a dark, ominous tower.
The
purpose of the player of
"The rooad of warrior" is
to free a cursed village from the evil demons
that inhabit the nearby tower. It turns out that the inhabitants of the village
are forever
trapped, only to be sacrificed one by one to the tower’s evil demon lord. It is
the
job of the player to go into the tower and destroy the evil creatures.
Along the way, the player can
harness various weapons and spells. Killing monsters
increases the player’s experience points. At specific points, the player’s
experience
level and abilities are increased. At certain experience levels, the player is
also able
to use a newly learned spell.
Those items and spells will
come in handy because the player must fight through
five monster-packed levels (including the local village where the player can
regain
health and buy items). Each unique level demonstrates briefly what you can
accomplish
using the components created. So, it’s time to get a move on and see how those
levels are designed.
Designing the Levels
The Tower consists of five game
levels (also referred to as scenes)—the village, the
bridge, the ground level of the tower, the tower ledge, and the Evil Lord’s
room.
A pre-rendered backdrop bitmap image represents each level. All the
game levels have a single bitmap that is split into six smaller textures. Each
level
also has a simplified mesh used to render each level’s depth buffer.
The first scene, the village,
is shown in following snap. The village is the starting point
of the adventure and is where the character will find a place to heal and buy
items.
At the start of the game, when the player arrives, a single monster inhabits the
village. Once the monster is dispatched, the village becomes safe enough for
the villagers to come out of hiding.
 |
The
village level, complete with locals, is where the player begins his
adventure. |
Following snap shows the second
level of the game, the bridge. Upon the player’s first
visit to the bridge, the village guard blocks travel across the bridge. Once the
guard
leaves his post, the player is free to move across the bridge and into the
tower. Monsters randomly
inhabit this level once the guard returns to the village.
 |
The
bridge to the tower is sometimes wrought with perils. Here, two monsters
close in for the kill. |
The third level of the game,
shown in following snap, is the ground level of the tower.
The first time the player enters the tower, he sees two guards. As one guard
attacks,
the other one goes to warn his master of the player’s intrusion. Subsequent
visits to
the tower’s ground level leads to a random number of guards attacking.
 |
Two or
more guards initially patrol the tower’s ground level. Here, one guard
issues a command to another guard. |
In the following snap, you see
the fourth level, the tower ledge. The action moves outside
as the player moves along a ledge leading to the last level. Here, the player
engages
in combat against Granite, the magically altered guard with the unfortunate duty
of
warning his lord of the player’s arrival.
 |
The tower
ledge is home to the strong demon beast, Granite. Be careful; he packs a
punch and is ready to make quick work of the player. |
The last level of the game, the
Evil Lord’s room (see following snap) is where the
game comes to an end. Within the round walls of this last level is the Evil
Lord,
demon supreme, and the beast responsible for the curse placed upon the village.
The player must kill the Evil Lord in order to win the game.
 |
The Evil
Lord lies in wait for the player to visit his inner sanctum. Here, the
Lord casts a power-up spell on himself. |
Although limited in the number
of characters, this sample game does a fine job of
demonstrating characters. Check out the next section to see how to define the
characters in the game, and the section “Controlling Characters in the Game,”
later in this chapter, to see how those characters are programmed in the
project.