13 Nov 2022 » C-Dogs 1.4.0 Released!

And now, another C-Dogs SDL release! As announced before, this release contains

• a new equip menu, but also
• a dedicated melee weapon slot, and also
• some campaigns have auto-melee weapons! (Doom, Wolf3D + Spear of Destiny)

Some long time C-Dogs fans may recall that in classic C-Dogs, players could have up to 3 weapons. Way back in version 0.6.7, we changed one of them to a dedicated grenade/explosives slot, in order to streamline the weapon switching controls and make grenades much more useful. But this would be bad for players who don’t use explosives in the first place, but like playing with two guns and a backup melee weapon (i.e. the trusty knife).

Well now you can do all that, because the redesigned equipment system allows 2 guns + melee + grenade, for a total of 4! And on the campaigns with auto-melee, you can pull off cool moves like finish weak enemies off by dashing into them and automatically hitting them with a melee weapon!

Download free from itch.io: https://congusbongus.itch.io/cdogs-sdl/purchase

Release notes: https://github.com/cxong/cdogs-sdl/releases/tag/1.4.0

10 Sep 2022 » New Equip Menu

The next version of C-Dogs SDL contains a redesign of the equip menu!

With this new GUI, you can clearly see the weapon slots, and the available weapons as icons. More enhancements are in the works so stay tuned!

Let’s take a look back to the original C-Dogs equip menu:

This version was minimalist and showed the available weapons clearly, but it tended to confuse new players who weren’t aware that the top section showed equipped weapons, and how many slots there were. The controls were also unintuitive - you used the shoot button to equip weapons, but to remove you had to use the switch/slide button.

This was changed when the grenade slot was added in version 0.6.7. Weapon slots are shown prominently, but the available weapons are hidden, which made it harder to see what was available, or when there were new weapon options.

With this newest GUI, we’ve solved all the shortcomings plus making things look really good too!

If you want to follow the development plan, check out the GitHub project for C-Dogs SDL.

13 Jun 2022 » C-Dogs 1.3.1 Released!

Small bugfix release, with a few minor enhancements:

• Fix gas bomb poison effect lasting forever 😱
• Add accurate 1up powerup for Wolf3D/SoD campaigns (1 life, 100 health, 25 ammo)
• Add accurate backpack powerup for Doom campaign (small amounts of all ammo types)
• Persistent lives

The last one is a notable change; previously lives would reset every level, making it little more than a glorified extended life meter. Now it makes sense to try to stay alive and not waste lives, and collect those 1up powerups (in Wolf3D/SoD)!

Download free from itch.io: https://congusbongus.itch.io/cdogs-sdl/purchase

Release notes: https://github.com/cxong/cdogs-sdl/releases/tag/1.3.1

01 May 2022 » C-Dogs 1.3.0 Released!

Happy May Day! Today we have another release with a random assortment of fixes and enhancements!

Since around version 1.0, the campaign editor was missing some UI elements, like mission objectives, objects, enemies, and allowed weapons 🙃 Pretty important no? Well they’re fixed now…

Also, we have a bunch of unrelated enhancements:

Animated loading screens

Animated doors

Footprints

…and more enhancements and fixes!

Download free from itch.io: https://congusbongus.itch.io/cdogs-sdl/purchase

Release notes: https://github.com/cxong/cdogs-sdl/releases/tag/1.3.0

16 Apr 2022 » Future Plans

As mentioned previously, C-Dogs SDL has well and truly gone into sporadic development mode. That doesn’t mean it has stopped; work continues albeit at a slower pace, and there is another release in the works…

On that note, here are some future plans for C-Dogs SDL, although it’s unlikely they will be achieved. Still, they might be interesting for you to think about:

Cyberdogs

Yes, the 1994 freeware DOS classic, Cyberdogs, by the same original author as C-Dogs! Cyberdogs was released a number of years earlier, and is still fondly remembered by many. Although it looks very similar and plays similarly to C-Dogs, and if you compare the feature list it has many things missing (like different types of maps, story-based campaigns, fewer weapons), crucially it has something that C-Dogs doesn’t: buying and selling weapons and ammo. This feature is quite significant, and creates a cool meta-game on top of the base run-and-gun shooting game, which is why many players prefer Cyberdogs over C-Dogs.

Well what if we could have Cyberdogs and C-Dogs in the same game???

This is the plan: add a Cyberdogs custom campaign to C-Dogs SDL. It will have the classic Cyberdogs guns, creepy zombie/cyborg baddies, the buy/sell phase, and all in C-Dogs SDL livery with its bells and whistles. Cyberdogs SDL if you will.

And it won’t be terribly hard to do so. Virtually all the features are implemented, apart from the buy/sell mechanic.

More Wolf3D-based Mods

The big version 1.0 release was all about being able to play Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny. It was well-received, and rightly so: both C-Dogs and Wolfenstein 3D are fun games, and Wolf3D-in-C-Dogs is the best rendition of Wolfenstein 3D in 2D (if I say so myself 🧐).

As you may know, there are a bunch of games that also use the Wolfenstein 3D engine. These include some cool but perhaps less well known games, like Rise of the Triad, Super 3D Noah’s Ark, Blake Stone, and more _{stinkers like Corridor 7…}

What if we could play these games, but in 2D?

This is possible but will require a bit of work. Because they use the same Wolfenstein 3D engine, their level and audio data is easily supportable, but graphics will need to be reworked, since the transition between first-person and overhead, C-Dogs graphics is not easy. Plus new gameplay elements will need to be added where necessary, e.g. talking to people like in Blake Stone. While a lot of work, it won’t be out of the question…

Good Internet Multiplayer

LAN multiplayer was added back in version 0.6, and internet multiplayer is also supported although well hidden - you have to access it via a command-line parameter. It was hidden for good reason - lack of game lobbies, and anti-lag.

Multiplayer is perennially one of the most requested features in C-Dogs SDL, so how come it isn’t one of the top dev priorities? Well, because it’s quite difficult, and requires a lot of stars to align to be worthwhile, so to speak:

• A dedicated online service to host game lobbies, and/or matchmaking
• A community of C-Dogs SDL players, which so far has not materialised
• Good multiplayer content
• Good multiplayer modes (deathmatch is ok, but what about persistent co-op campaigns, CTF and so on?)
• A good multiplayer bot for when human players aren’t available

So it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem; without good multiplayer support it’s hard for a community to form, but without a community there is little incentive to work on multiplayer. But who knows, maybe with enough effort chipping away at the edges…

A Proper Story and World

One thing that constantly baffles new C-Dogs players is that they don’t understand what the game is about. In the original game, players get 5 unrelated campaigns, where you battle an army of ogres, or fight a zombie infestation, or stop bank robbers… you name it, it was a random mix of action game tropes.

What if these campaigns were all interconnected, inside a larger story, or even game world?

Perhaps there is a real, “main” campaign telling the story of intrepid cyborg-dogfighters, or “cyberdogs”, taking on contracts in a gritty post-cyberpunk world. Players could walk around in a persistent hub-world, accessing side missions by talking to specific quest-givers like an RPG. Or maybe the existing campaigns are reworked so they fit within the same world. What would this world even look like? Does it take place in an interstellar empire, or a grimy Blade Runner-esque metropolis? And what’s with the bug-eyed monsters anyway, are they AI run amok, or the physical manifestations of an insane genius?

These questions await answers, but perhaps only by a passionate writer willing to undertake such a crazy task.

…And More!

There are many more C-Dogs SDL ideas:

• Implementing Ronny Wester’s roguelike, Magus, as an action RPG
• Reading maps from an RTS, like Command and Conquer, so you can play as a MOBA
• Fleshing out melee combat, adding beat-em-up mechanics
• Adding more vehicles, aircraft, making even more exciting multiplayer content

Which ones would you most like to see? Would you be interested in contributing or even maintaining C-Dogs SDL? Check out the project today!