Deus Heist

I managed to make a playable level of a DOS heist game.


It's a text-based game, built for 16-bit DOS, so in theory, it should run on a 286 (albeit as slow as a sedated two-legged dog).  I haven't had any time for optimising it, and the code is hideous, but it is technically playable.

The main feature is the visibility check, modelled on the game Monaco: What's Yours is Mine.


It scans out from the player, checking if a cell blocks line-of-sight or not.  I made it fairly efficient by splitting the check into quadrants (N, E, S, W) and scanning cells between two edge-lines.  If it encountered an opaque block, it would split the scan up and recurse.

On DOSBox, it gets a little slow when you can see a lot of the screen.  I imagine on a 286, this would crawl.  However, the game world does not change at all in the current version, so there are no guards going to creep up on you while you're lagging.

I could also help things by designing the maps so there is nowhere you can see very far, or even just hard-coding a range limit.

If/when I continue with this project, I'd like to add:

  • more levels (obviously)
  • guards following patrol paths
  • guards reacting to noises, etc.
  • doors to open/close
  • non-guard NPCs
  • furniture / level atmosphere
  • music and sound effects
  • larger, scrolling maps with multiple floors
  • hackable cameras so you can see what they see
...and so much more.  It's got masses of potential, it just needs a complete re-write from the ground up with a proper design in mind. :P

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