This was my first Silverlight game. I have now updated it for Silverlight 2 Beta 2 ( here is the Beta 1 version ). The game counts down and begins the lander on approach from the top left of the screen. Your job is to bring the lander to a safe slow (and upright) landing on the surface inside the highlighted landing zone. Each level increases difficulty by increasing gravity, increasing initial velocity, decreasing available fuel, and a decreasing landing zone radius. Use the arrow keys to rotate and thrust.
I started with the building blocks for the gameloop and use of sprites and vectors from Bill Reiss demos on SilverlightRocks.
My next steps are:
Gravity is currently straight down, so I need to update that to be the center of the moon/object. The game loop adds a vector straight down instead of directly toward the center of the moon. (Done, thx to Bill Reiss who has way more physics experience than me)- Make magnitude of gravity relative to the proximity to the moon, rather than a constant.
- There is a random math error during the game loop: you may experience it when the ship just jumps completely out of the screen. but appears to continue moving.
- Create a formula for scoring, with bonuses for time taken, fuel remaining, difficulty, and slower velocity at landing.
- Capture scores on a leader board via a web service.
- Create a 'instrument panel' for indicators; speed, descent rate, remaining fuel, attitude, range to surface, etc.
- Improve location of messages on the screen.