XIOTANK: An audio roguelike puzzle game in Common Lisp

About

XIOTANK is my 2010 7-Day Roguelike Challenge entry. The game is NOW RELEASED AS OF Sunday, March 14 2010 (US Eastern Time) for Linux, with Windows and Mac OSX versions following soon after.

Screenshots

Xiotank gameplay video

Download XIOTANK

XIOTANK 7DRL is released, for Microsoft Windows, Macintosh OSX (Intel), and GNU/Linux.

Please visit the downloads page to choose the right file for your platform.

Notes on the downloads—PLEASE READ

Windows users:

Right now there is no fancy installer, but you can still download and run the game with a few clicks.

First, your browser will probably ask you whether to Open the download, or Save it to disk. CHOOSE SAVE TO DISK and put it wherever you want. If you are just trying out the game, you can put it on your Windows desktop.

Second, RIGHT-CLICK the XIOTANK-win32.zip file and choose EXTRACT or EXPAND or UNZIP (this may vary depending on your version of Windows.) If it asks for a destination folder, choose the Desktop.

Third and finally, DOUBLE-CLICK the xiotank-win32 folder that should now be on the Desktop. The folder should open into an Explorer window. Scroll down to XIOTANK.EXE and double-click it. That's it! Sorry, we are working on improving the installer.

Mac OSX users:

Use CONTROL-P to pause, as there is no "pause" key on the Mac.

Linux users:

You need the libsdl, libsdl-mixer, libsdl-image, and libsdl-gfx libraries installed via your distribution's package manager.
If the game complains about libsdl_gfx not found, it will give you the option at the command line to choose between several restarts. Choose CONTINUE and it should work.
If you get errors about paths and configuration when trying to start up, see these notes for a fix. In particular, you can add a line like:

(setf xe2:*module-directories* '(#P"/home/dto/xe2/"))

to a file called .xe2rc in your home directory. We are working on fixing this bug.

If you get no sound, you may need to install the pulseaudio version of SDL-MIXER from your distribution's package library. This will replace the raw ALSA version of SDL-MIXER and fix the problem. The package name you want on Ubuntu Karmic is libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio
If you still can't get any of the binaries running, or if there is no binary for your system, see the developer's install guide for instructions on making your own binary.

Support

irc.freenode.org#lispgames
email me

Future

I have quite a few plans for improvements. Who knows!?

Overview

In another world, digital audio phenomena war against one another. It's one pilot against the Noise Armada in the battle for dominance of Blue Space.

You control a tank with 8-way movement and firing. The tank can fire sound waves in order to destroy enemies or activate objects. Each area is tuned to a given "tone cluster", and you must turn on oscillators to produce just the right tones in order to unlock gates. You are trying to create ordered tone signals, whereas the enemies try to create dissonance and even data corruption.

Out of the mad chaos of fractured signals and white noise, you must restore ordered tones and steady beats. Objects respond to tones and beats, enabling puzzles to be solved.

Sound waves

Sound waves are the primary means of attacking enemies and interacting with objects in the game. Press CONTROL (or ALT) along with a directional key in order to fire in the corresponding direction.

Tone clusters

A tone cluster is a set of distinct musical notes, usually three or more. The key to solving each level is sounding all the correct tones (via Oscillators, see below.) and silencing tones that are not part of the cluster. This will open gates that lead to the exit. However, activating non-cluster tones may be required during the solution of a puzzle.

Oscillators

Oscillators are objects that generate a pure tone when hit with a sound wave. A second wave hit will toggle the tone off. Each oscillator is tuned to a specific note; this note is displayed onscreen while the oscillator is on, and the corresponding tone is heard.

Since sound waves toggle oscillators, enemy activity and combat can disupt your plans.

Pulsators

The pulsator establishes a beat. There is only one pulsator on any given level. Other objects respond to the beat. The pulsator can be toggled on and off by hitting it with sound waves.

Delays

Delays are impassable wall objects which are nonetheless permeable to light waves—with a delay imposed. The pulsating beat causes any previous wave fired in to be released.

Turrets

Turrets fire waves with the beat. These also turn ninety degrees clockwise when fired upon. Use these when continuous fire is required to activate an element (for example, Gate elements.)

TODO Gate

The Gate element opens for a brief time when hit with a wave.

Fences

Fences are data elements that project an electrified instakill wire into the room, possibly obstructing access to important stuff. Each fence is attuned to a particular note, and the fence goes down (or up!) when the note is sounded.

Shockers

Shockers are creepy magenta square wave shooters. These tend to wander unless the player gets near, then they pursue and fire.

Corruptors

Corruptors navigate the level leaving digital audio corruption. This is instakill.

Drones

Drones are robotic brainlike entities who monitor hallways and spawn countless copies of other evil programs.