Ball 4k

kevglass · January 16, 2005, 7:45am

Just incase anyone wasn’t already bored of my 4k efforts… here’s another one

http://www.cokeandcode.com/games/4k/ball4k/ball4k-temp.jnlp

Jar at: http://www.cokeandcode.com/games/4k/ball4k/ball4k.jar

Run with:
java -cp ball4k.jar R

Inspired by Mojangs Sonic4k and very much in the same vein as Tilt4k. Guide your ball around, don’t fall off. Light up the markers by rolling over them. Once you’ve rolled over them all the exit will appear and you should probably use it. Time limited of course

Controls so far:

Cursors - control ball
Space - Jumps
Enter - Starts a level
Page Up/Page Down - Rotate view
End - Reset view

This is still very much a work in progress. I’ve not done anything to optimise graphics or jar size. Only one test level so far but I’d like to check things are working ok on most systems before getting going…

Suggestions/Feedback appreciated as normal…

You might have guess I’m really really enjoying this 4k lark ;D

Kev

PS. Also, I think only one entry into J4K3 is allowed… so suggestions on which to enter would be useful. (Tilt4k, Ball4k, Trooper or Snake).

jojoh · January 16, 2005, 9:24am

Sounds interesting, but I can’t get to the Host. Is the URL just created? Maybe you can put up a temporary jar at original cokeandcode.com for now?

Only on entry allowed? That would be a shame. It would at least be nice to have all the 4K games available at one spot.

Nope, note bored of 4K games. Keep em comming!

kevglass · January 16, 2005, 9:33am

Consider it done… updated the links above.

I’m surprised that the games.cokeandcode.com domain hasn’t propogated out as far as you yet… its was a few days ago and quite a few others have managed to access it… I’ll check with my admin (Endolf :))

I’ve actually been putting a site together of my 4k games as I’ve been going along building them… thats what the new domain was for… but its not really developed enough for public viewing as yet.

Kev

Malohkan · January 16, 2005, 2:21pm

I like it! I think the ball accelerates too quickly though.

kevglass · January 16, 2005, 3:47pm

Uploaded a new version…

5 designed levels of fun
Instructions
Blocks that disappear
Blocks that flash on/off
Teleporters

I’ll look at slowing the ball down if you reakon it’d be better.

Kev

oNyx · January 16, 2005, 6:38pm

Also, I think only one entry into J4K3 is allowed

Nah

IIRC no one submitted more than one game so far, but that’s not because it’s part of the rules. A clause like that wasn’t there ever. And since it’s a fun compo where you can only win fame and some duke dollars from mlk… no one will complain

And the game is great :o

For the suggestion box:
-add speed capping (because it makes things easier)
-add friction (same thing)
-let pgup/pgdn rotate in 90° steps… like targetangle+= or -= 90… angle=targetangle<angle?angle+1:targetangle>angle?angle-1:angle;

Something like that. I’m unable to put that into english right now

weston · January 16, 2005, 9:12pm

woah thats awesome, feels a bit like marble madness. Teleporters and disappearing blocks are a great touch. The game started to get real choppy around level 4, its possible that there was something else running on my system that slowed it down but I think not. This is my favorite with tilt4k in close second (not that it matters since you can submit more than one…).

woogley · January 17, 2005, 12:52am

great job kev! that is alot of fun. it would be even better if you could show a tilt like before… but I dont think that could fit under 4k!

I didnt really see any bugs but I noticed the space key seems to stick… I have to hold it a second or two before the ball jumps (and yes but space key works correctly in other programs ;))

keep up the great work

kevglass · January 17, 2005, 5:21am

Space Key - there is a restriction how often you can jump. Not sure if this is what you’re seeing or not. Hold the space bar down and see if you jump at regular intervals.

Speed Cap - Ok, I can try.
Friction - Ok, I can try.

Level 4 shouldn’t be any more intensive that Level 1 infact its smaller Probably some other interactions… maybe nasty GC kicked in or something?

Tilt the whole board wouldn’t be possible with the liberties I’ve taken with the pseudo 3D. No depth sorting so things might go haywire.

Glad you like it. If I can have multiple entries into J4K3 then I’m set

Kev

Nekromant · January 17, 2005, 10:09am

veeeeery nice. i like it. and this is a more important compliment cause i really dont like this kind of games. i have no patience for maneuvering a ball around edges… ;D

woogley · January 17, 2005, 10:09pm

hmm, what if you had say… a blue background, and have a few clouds randomly scarrtered about as a background. Then you could give the illusion of a tilt by moving the background rather than moving the board. just a thought.

jojoh · January 18, 2005, 12:38pm

Very nice and polished game, especially for being 4K! Good retro feel as well.

I agree with oNyx, that a snap to 90 degrees would be nice. Maybe just a check when PgUp/PgDn is released. If view angle is close to an even 45 degree, then “snap to it”. That way you can have a nice smooth rotate, but still not too difficult. Using it when angle was 95 had me falling off very soon, so I ended up never using rotat view. :-/

Small amount of friktion would probably give nice feel to it, and make it a lot easier (would be nice). Speedcap not as important IMHO.

Game doesn’t give the impression that it had any mem limitation. Very impressive!

jojoh · January 18, 2005, 12:47pm

By the way, http://games.cokeandcode.com/ has now reached my DNS. Very nice look!

kevglass · January 18, 2005, 12:58pm

Ssshhh… not ready yet. Still waiting for more games

Kev

jojoh · January 18, 2005, 2:40pm

Hehe, sorry :-[ Figured since you had it here before it would be OK. Want me to take it away for now? Don’t think you have to hide it, looks plenty good enough. Maybe you are the one who should host the 4K stuff at one place?

kevglass · January 18, 2005, 2:58pm

No thanks Woogleys got a great site for 4k entries. This site is for any little game I like

New features added and uploaded. 4087 bytes.

Kev

luisoft · January 19, 2005, 1:02am

really cool game for only 4k! Does this game and the other 4k games
has source code avaiable?

kevglass · January 19, 2005, 4:42am

I’m quite embarrased in many ways about the style of source. Of course its all to fit in the 4k but still.

I’ll be posting my source on my website with a disclaimer once I get round to it. You’d have to check with other authors to find out about their source as I believe its purely discressionary whether its release or not (although I think it’d be nice).

Kev

luisoft · February 2, 2005, 2:56pm

hi Key, I was looking at the source code and I could not figure out about the following lines:


int delta = (int) (System.currentTimeMillis() - lastLoopTime);
                  for (int i=0;i<delta/10;i++) {
                        logic(10);
                  }
                  logic(delta % 10);

Why are u calling logic two times in the loop?

Tks

kevglass · February 2, 2005, 3:34pm

Actually I’m calling it (tickTime / 10) + 1 times. Its so that the logic is never progressed more than 10 milliseconds meaning that the collision detection should never jump through things.

If for instance my tickTime (delta) was 35 milliseconds, the idea (it might be bugged) was that it calls logic 3 times with a 10 milisecond increment then once with a 5 millisecond.

Does that make sense?

Kev