Ostrich Farmer

[Sonja]

My idea for a game, if only I had the intellectual capacity to learn to program, is Ostrich Farmer.

 

It's a game where you run around on a screen and try to get a bunch of crazy ostriches onto a truck like in this video:

 

The ostriches might look like this: http://www.kisa.ca/pixelart/struto.png

 

You'd have to approach an ostrich (who are trying to evade you) and then push the button when adjacent to it to put a "sock" over its head to blind it.

 

After that, the ostrich is less wild, and you can actually push it in any direction. However it randomly nudges itself in the wrong direction from time to time and you have to circle around it again to push it from the direction you wanted.

 

You could play cooperatively as a 2-player game, but the ostriches would be more jittery, so you'd need two people around it to make suer it doesn't escape in that direction the 2nd player is facing.

 

I'm sure I could think of other things to spice up the game so it doesn't get too repetitive.

 

Sonja

[hardhat]

I like Dirty Jobs. Fun.

 

Something like the attached? I have an Ostrich that evades you, and you pretty much have to chase it to a fence. If it notices you're close, it runs aways fast.

 

Use the fire button when your shirt turns purple to catch the Ostrich, and bag them.

 

 

I didn't do the "loading into a truck" part that you described. If you like it so far, maybe you can draw the art.

 

Edit: I've attached a screen shot of the progress, if you don't have time to try the ColecoVision rom. It was a ColecoVision game you wanted, right? I also fixed a logic bug in version 0.2, where you could just hold fire, and added a between level instruction screen. And I tuned the graphics a tiny bit.

ostrich0_1.zip

ostrich0_2.zip

Edited November 2, 2007 by hardhat

[Sonja]

WOW cool! I must try this out!

[Sonja]

Haha, that's a really cute prototype!! I like it! One day, when I'm rich, I'll hire somebody to do this game for 2600.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Haha, that's a really cute prototype!! I like it! One day, when I'm rich, I'll hire somebody to do this game for 2600.

 

Well... I can't promise I'll do that, but... what if the ostriches jump ship instead of getting caught?

 

ship71104.bin

 

Yes, this is a 2600 binary.

 

By the way... is an ostrich able to swim?

Edited November 4, 2007 by Kurt_Woloch

[Glenn Jupp]

By the way... is an ostrich able to swim?

 

I imagine so. I've been told that most critters will swim when tossed into the drink. Lungs and all make 'em buoyant. Unfortunately I don't have any ostriches handy to test with. Probably just as well.

 

Anyway, what if it's not just Ostrich Farming, but Ostrich Rustling? There could be levels where the farm dogs could be chasing the player, maybe while the player is chasing the ostriches. And then there's the farmer, complete with shotgun. Head 'em up and move 'em out, but fast.

 

p.s. Is anyone here familiar with real ostrich behaviour? Do they tend to bunch up or scatter? And am I worrying too much about it for a video game?

Edited November 5, 2007 by Glenn Jupp

[Sonja]

The ostriches just fall in the water. Are there any game controls I'm missing? Or is this a sort of joke hack on a Titanic video?

 

Poor ostriches.

[Sonja]

By the way... is an ostrich able to swim?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/apr...ches-swim_N.htm

[Kurt_Woloch]

The ostriches just fall in the water. Are there any game controls I'm missing? Or is this a sort of joke hack on a Titanic video?

 

No, you're not missing any game controls... the demo itself is missing any game controls. And yes, it's a joke hack on my "Titanic Rescue" demo. Originally there were men jumping from the ship, and the game planned for it is that you have a boat below the ship which should catch the men and bring them to the shore... but that part isn't implemented yet. I just did a quick hack changing the falling men to ostriches (and the ship color from brown into black so that the brown ostriches stand out in front of it).