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This is a comprehensive 4 part tutorial series by Zeke Chan that details building a faithful remake of the classic Atari game Asteroids:

"Back in November 1979, Atari launched Asteroids, their all-time best selling game. Over time, Atari sold more than 100,000 units of Asteroids video game machines. Although that number seems small compared to games available on mobile phones and tablets, back then, it was a phenomenal success.

Lyle Rains, vice president of the coin-operated games division, came up with the basic game idea: Players would control the movement of a small spaceship while shooting asteroids to clear an area of space. Ed Logg, the programmer working on Asteroids, added the idea that the asteroids would repeatedly get smaller as the player shot them. Also, to keep players alert, he also added 2 UFOs: large, slow moving ones that shot randomly; and smaller fast moving ones that would aim at the players ship."

This tutorial covers:

  • Project setup
  • Player ship
  • Creating a single screen game world
  • Adding asteroids
  • Adding player lives
  • Adding sounds
  • The main menu state

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