Type:
1st Version:
Actual Version:
Compatibility:
executable for Windows
February 2003
1.63 (August 2008)
Windows NT, XP, Vista
Alien Entity is a shoot 'em up inspired by R-Type, a really cool game from the 1980s.
In the short film Alien Entity you can see these two yellow things play a video game. The game actually didn't exist at the time, it was an animation I made especially for the short film.
In 2003 I started programming my own 2D game engine. When it was somewhat operational, I decided to create the game of the animation.
On the left you can see a screen shot of the short film and on the right a screen shot of the real game:
The RAR file containing the game can be downloaded here: download RAR file (AEtheGame Version 1.63).
The installation is easy: unrar the RAR file somewhere on your hard disk and then execute "AEtheGame.exe".
Usage: use the cursor keys (or the WASD keys) for up/down/left/right and the left or right control key to fire.
1. The graphic engine
When I started programming the engine in February 2003, I had absolutely no experience with MS-Windows programming and instead of learning how to code for Windows and DirectX, I decided to write all graphic routines myself. So the engine's work flow looks like this:
-open a window
-draw something with own routines in a bitmap
-use OS to display the bitmap in the window
That has some clear advantages: there was no need to learn much about Windows programming and I could immediately start with the fun part instead of reading hundreds of documentation pages. But my approach also has some disadvantages: not using any OS drawing routines means that the CPU has to do everything whereas the GPU is bored stiff.
2. The audio engine
Once the graphic routines were more or less all done, I had to add some sound routines to the engine, which I implemented using DirectSound.
3. The engine's language
The engine has its own programming language which consists of a mixture of expressions (nearly the same as in Softimage) and a cryptic script-like language. The code is contained in the aec-files that are loaded and compiled by the engine at runtime.
4. The engine's file formats
The engine can read TARGA, JPG and WAV files, but also has its own picture and sound format.
5. Where the engine came into operation
The AE Game Engine was, of course, used for this game. But over the years its functionality grew and it was also used for other purposes than simple 2D shooters.
The GUIs of SampleRobot and WaveRobot, two audio tools to automatically record instruments and find loop points in an audio sample, both run using this engine. For more information about SampleRobot and WaveRobot:
www.samplerobot.com or have a look at the SampleRobot animation.
Here a few screen shots of SampleRobot:
