Aura 4K - Submitted

Contests 4K Game Competition - 2011
#1

Aura 4K is a simplified version of a game I thought up awhile ago, but it is still a full game. It demands strategy and patience. If you think it’s too hard you might be under-utilizing the active spawn (spacebar). The game-play is more involved than that of most applet games, and it’s intricacies may be overlooked at a quick glance. However, I promise you’ll have fun if you look at it the right way.

I’d appreciate your comments/suggestions before I submit it.

Current Version: 1.6

http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=333

Also, a special thank-you to Riven for maintaining the 4K Compile and Shrink service.

#2

It’s too hard. I died on the second level. When you attack the big guys they are guaranteed to hit at least one member of the party. There are so many of them through the first 2 levels the whole party dies quickly.

#3

Came to level 6 but then I lost a guy which made it really difficult. It’d be nice to start each level with full health or when you die restart the same level with full health instead of the harsh way it currently is :slight_smile:

Mike

#4

I also think that it is a bit difficult but it has potential.

Something that would make it more interesting would be some kind of more powerful weapon that is recharged slowly but can be used to wipe out many enemies at the same time. You would have to manually aim with it also perhaps.

#5

It is meant to be hard, but not harder than hard. I guess the main problem is that any single mistake makes subsequent levels much harder. While this was intended for consistency with the staying alive in the forrest theme, it does turn this into a stamina game.

I think I will make it so when you lose, you restart on the same level will full health and your active spawn. The game will keep track of your continues so you can benchmark your play.

@CaptainJester
It seems like you’re not noticing the active spawn. Try pressing the space bar a couple of times in game. Also, running away while shooting works on small numbers of beasts. If overlooking the spawn is a common problem it could deter people from playing the game, so I will add some sort of reminder on the level screens.

@Mickelukas
Well done, my record for v1.1 is level 5.

@krasse
I agree 100%. There are a lot of things I want to add, but each compile is straddling the limit as it is. My focus right now is to make what I have as fun and complete as possible.

#6

Ah, that’s how to use the teleporter, I thought it only teleported one guy so I never used it :slight_smile:

Mike

#7

Ok, v1.2 is up with continues enabled. It’s at the same address.

#8

Wow. It crashes my video driver. Impressive!

#9

Using Thread.yield() instead of Thread.sleep() is a bad idea. The game keeps redrawing so fast my graphics card maxes out so it’s unplayable on my machine :-\

#10

Ouch, it killed my gfx driver too :o

#11

@CatWeazle, SimonH and pjt33

Thank you for bringing this game killing bug to my attention. I will post an update once the fix is made and the game is submission ready.

#12

Very cool game, love the squares of different shades of green and the pseudo-physics you’ve got working with mouse-control.

The count-down timer never made it past 0 for me, I thought it froze and then I randomly pressed keys and space bar made it work.

This has lots of potential

#13

All thread.yield() have been replaced with thread.sleep() and the file has been squeezed back down to its competition weight. I never had a problem with the graphics driver on my computer so I would appreciate it if atWeazle, SimonH or pjt33 can verify that it is working.

@CommanderKeith - Thanks for the compliment. Using the spacebar to start is the wanted behaviour. The number is actually the current level, I have changed the print out to make this more obvious.

#14

Yep, the crash is fixed.

There’s something in the gameplay which feels to me like a bug: I think I managed to leave my spawn point behind on level 2, and so I was trying to complete the rest of the game without it. Not fun.

#15

That’s not a bug. The game is progressive, the journey of a group of soldiers through a forest. The levels are more like checkpoints. Health does not refresh between levels, and if you leave the spawn behind it stays behind. Of course, when you die you restart the current level with your health and spawn restored.

Having said that, thanks for pointing it out. I like hearing about the things that don’t feel right. While I’ve already submitted this game I can make it work more smoothly if I use a similar mechanic in the future.

#16

Ah. I assumed that when you died it would be game over back to level 1 - it feels like a harsh game - so I quit when I was down to one man and didn’t have enough firepower to take on the big guys.