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Email: mikeprosser@gmail.com -
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Ogrian Carpet - About
Background Ogrian Carpet is a first-person 'shooter' inspired by Bullfrog's Magic Carpet. It started as a remake of Arabian Flights, which I made from Oct 2002 to Oct 2003. My goal was to create an impressive demo of my coding ability, to facilitate my entrance into the games development industry when I graduate. I wrote it in java because I am very good at java, and I believed it would allow me to get a good project done (reletively) quickly. I was correct, and I am very happy with the result. However, Arabian Flights is plauged with Java3D library bugs (which may never be fixed) and bad performance. Also, Most 3D games are not written in Java. Thus, I decided to re-make the game in a whole other language, namely C++. I found the Ogre3D engine and realized it would make an excellent graphics library for my remake. Thus the name 'Ogrian Carpet'. I was espeically pleased with Ogre when I was able to make a landscape with ocean, sky, and islands in a matter of hours based on the examples. What had taken me 30 hours to do with Java3D took less then 5 hours of simply cutting and pasting from the Ogre Examples. The result was significantly prettier too. I quickly set up a SourceForge account and threw together this webpage. The Purpose of Arabian Flights was to show off my coding ability. To facilitate this, I open-sourced it. This means that anyone can get the source code freely, and even use it in their own projects (as long as their project is also licenced under the GPL). This also meant that I could use SourceForge's resources for free, including ad-free webhosting and CVS services. I waited until I was done with Arabian Flights before releasing it under the GPL, but for Ogrian Carpet, I am releasing it under the GPL from the beginning. I feel that I have proven my ability to code alone, and I welcome any help on my current project. If you want to work on Ogrian Carpet with me, simply sign up with SourceForge as a developer (if you haven't already) and send me an email saying you want to join the team. How to Play controls
how to play
Basically, the game consists of fighting for control of mana. Whenever you encounter another wizard, shoot them with fireballs. If you hit them enough, they will "die" and be sent back to their castle. You are then free to claim all the mana in the area for yourself. Once all the mana has been claimed, attack your enemy's castle to get mana out of it so you can claim it for yourself. Once you enemy's castle is out of mana, you can eliminate it by killing it's heart. When all of your opponents have been banished, you've won. Things
Note: Things are tinted to show which team they are on. Spells
The spells that you have are shown at the top of the screen:
* for best results, don't just tap the mouse button, hold it down! Buildings
Game Modes
Host LAN game - This starts a server. Up to three other players can connect to you. Once they are all connected, bring up the menu with ESC and then press the "Start Game" button. Before you start the game, no mana can be claimed and no castles can be built. When the game is started, each player will be placed at a corner of the map and the fight can begin. Join LAN game - this joins a server. Type in the name or IP address of the server and press "Connect" to join the server. To find the ip address of the host machine run "ipconfig" at a command prompt. To get a command prompt, select Start->Run and type "cmd". The ip address is in the form of "192.168.1.1" Before playing a multiplayer game, it is important to choose your name and colour with the "Config" menu. Also note, players with the same colour are considered "allies". Their monsters will not attack each other, and towers will not claim each other's mana. Also, you can give your ally mana by casting the build spell on their castle. Credits
About the Author - My name is Mike Prosser, and I am a graduate student at Oklahoma University. I will get my Masters Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in Dec '05. I am a member and Trustee of Triangle Fraternity. I play games and I make games. My Resume. | |
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This site is copyright 2004-2005 Mike Prosser |
Mana are the semi-transparent bubble-like circles. To claim them for your own, cast your "claim" spell at them. If your claim spell hits the mana, it will change colour to match the colour of your team. Then, it will slowly migrate towards your castle. When it reaches your castle, it is absorbed and your maximum mana (base mana) goes up. Whenever you see mana that is not your colour, claim it for yourself! Be aware that unclaimed mana slowly rolls downhill, and if two mana collide, they form a bigger mana.
Kamikazi Cranes (as in origami cranes) defend castles and towers. They fly around the castle looking for enemies. When they see one, they fly towards it. If they collide with their target, they explode, dealing damage. They then respawn and start the process all over again. If you see a crane flying towards you, the bestway to avoid taking damage is to kill it before it hits you.
Sentinels are stationary gaurdians that fire fireballs at nearby enemies.
Gnomes are like sentinels, but they follow their wizard around.
Giant Ticks are monsters that attack enemies by jumping at them. If they touch an enemy, it is dealt a lot of damage. Ticks are very effective at killing castles and towers.
The Claim spell allows you to claim mana and Shrines. It also heals your monsters.
The Build spell allows you to build a castle. Once you have built a castle, this spell will build a free-standing tower anywhere on the map (except very near water or other buildings). If you cast it on an allies castle, some of your mana will be transfered to them.
Fireball* is the primary offensive spell. Note, they fall a bit as they fly, so aim a bit above your target. As you gain more mana, this will automatically upgrade to "akimbo fireball" and then to "Firestorm".
Teleport takes you and all of your ticks and gnomes back to your castle.
Summon Sentinel creates a sentinel.
Summon Gnome creates a gnome that will follow you around.
Speed* makes you go fast.
Summon Tick creates a tick that will follow you around.
Albatross is a giant crane that flies like a missile, dealing lots of damage to whatever it hits.
Castles store mana. The more yours has, the bigger it gets. (but it stops growing at 400 mana) It starts with one turret, but as it grows, it makes more. As a castle takes damage, it shrinks and drops mana into the surrounding area. Once a castle is out of mana, further damage will expose the castle's heart. If the castle's heart is destroyed, that player is banished from the game (though they may still spectate as a ghost).
Towers are outposts that can be built anywhere (except very near water or other buildings). You may build as many towers as you can afford (they cost 75 of your max mana (base mana) each - that's 75 mana that is removed from your castle, shrinking it). Each tower has two cranes that patrol the area. Towers also claim nearby mana automatically. Strategic use of towers is probably the key to victory. You can unbuild towers by hitting them with the build spell after they have been constructed. If a tower is destroyed, it will drop the 100 mana it took to build it. If it is unbuilt, the mana will return directly to its castle. Towers and castles also have a portal that teleport you to the next tower.
Mana Shrines are scattered around the map randomly at the start of the game. They can be claimed like mana to increase your mana regeneration rate.