Mars Lander v1.04 released on itch.io - with machine learning AI

[togFox]

https://togfox.itch.io/mars-lander

First official release

This project was very much a Love2D community project. Credit goes to:

- Milon
- Gunroar:cannon()
- Philbywhizz
- MadByte

and myself of course.

Fly your Mars lander as far as you can before you run out of fuel. Compete against friends on LAN, scripted bots and real machine-learning AI.

- 2D platformer. Fly as far as you can before running out of fuel
- play with your friends on LAN
- play against a bot (scripted)
- play against a real machine-learning artificial intelligent lander that learns
- land carefully and get fuel
- buy upgrades with money earned while flying/landing
- sweet pixel art with animations
- parallax scrolling
- simple to play. Just five buttons
- basic support for Android (will be improved)









https://togfox.itch.io/mars-lander

This has been developed over many months from the contributions provided by the above people. Whilst the project is in a bit of a deep freeze due to the game reaching maturity, there is absolutely so much potential for anyone that wants to make suggestions or contribute further to it. The code is not the best in the world but it's not the worst either. It's designed to be extended and added upon so new ideas can be incorporated without too much trouble.

If you've considered working collaboratively on LOVE projects then check out my signature to see my latest project.

[Gunroar:Cannon()]

Woah, ML. Nice!

[randomnovice]

Looks really fun! I hit a bug (see image).

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 20.02.53.png (119.15 KiB) Viewed 6250 times

[glitchapp]

It looks really cool, congratulations for involving so much people, I did not test the multiplayer but that's a really cool feature!
a few things I would improve:

- when the other players are out of sight you don't know how far they are, the goal of the game is to go further right? it would be nice to have a kind of mini map where you can see where the other ships are.

I run out of health and my ship doesn't explode or break, is that a bug?

I found the original game and played a little: https://arcader.com/lunar-lander/ it was really hard to land without exploding, your game looks to easy to me (maybe because the ship does not explode when out of health). I know the gameplay is different but maybe adding difficulty levels would make the game more challenging and interesting.

On the graphic part I love the parallax, really beautiful! The space for improvement and experimenting on the graphic part can be unlimited... I would experiment adding 3d assets and a 3d engine, adding color schemes and adding vectorial graphics like the original (you can fake it with assets if you don't want to program all from scratch).

Congratulations, I've never used the network libraries for love and that's make the game really interesting!

[milon]

Looks really fun! I hit a bug (see image).
-snip-

I had that happen once too. I'm on Linux, so I didn't report the issue. But it's referencing a debug section that I think was removed with the latest build. Not sure what causes that or how to pin it down.

[togFox]

Looks really fun! I hit a bug (see image).

Thanks for that bug report. Believe it or not, that's actually a result of the machine-learning bot out-learning it's "memory". The bot is flying further than expected and exceeding performance expectations. It's actually a fantastic bug. And easy to fix.

- when the other players are out of sight you don't know how far they are, the goal of the game is to go further right? it would be nice to have a kind of mini map where you can see where the other ships are.

- I run out of health and my ship doesn't explode or break, is that a bug?

- ... maybe adding difficulty levels would make the game more challenging and interesting.

- On the graphic part I love the parallax, really beautiful!

- I've never used the network libraries for love and that's make the game really interesting!

Yes. That is on my things to do list. I was planning having a 'marker' on the right edge of the screen that slides up and down as the other players fly and land and perhaps get bigger and small to indicate distance to that player. I didn't think of a mini-map so thanks for that suggestion.

The health bar works - but nothing happens when it is empty. It's a feature I never finished. I think I'll hide the bar for now.

I didn't think of difficulty levels. I'm not sure what that might be. Stronger gravity? Less fuel efficiency? Less fuel bases? I'll think about that.

First parallax for me and it went really well. It wasn't that hard either. The 3D stuff is probably a bridge too far.

I never used network libraries either and had only basic knowledge of how to code a LAN game. First time and it was a fascinating problem to solve.

Not sure what causes that or how to pin it down.

I think I know how to fix it. As above - the machine learning is exceeding expectations.

[glitchapp]

I didn't think of difficulty levels. I'm not sure what that might be. Stronger gravity? Less fuel efficiency? Less fuel bases? I'll think about that.

I don't know if others share my view to that, but to me it's too easy specially after playing the original game, you can't die unless you run out of fuel. The original was really hard it seems to me that the game lacks a little being more challenging like the original... I think by simply finishing the health function it would make the game more challenging an interesting.

Anyway congratulations, I love what you've achieved and done!

[milon]

I didn't think of difficulty levels. I'm not sure what that might be. Stronger gravity? Less fuel efficiency? Less fuel bases? I'll think about that.

What about more difficult terrain? Sharper peaks, maybe flying through occasional caves/tunnels (ie. there's a roof), etc?