JSeafox

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

Here is a game which has been inspired by the famous Seafox on C64 :wink:

JSeafox:

http://www.ralf-bauer.org/java/seafox/seafox.jpg

Here are the links

http://www.ralf-bauer.org/java/seafox/JSeafox.jnlp
http://www.ralf-bauer.org/java/seafox/Seafox.zip

Some additional comment:

There are two possibilites to get fresh air: Either ascend to the surface (not too long) or get an air tank from a friendly dolphin (not in the 1st level) :slight_smile:

Any comment will be appreciated.

#2

A comment to the controls. Each pressing of a cursor key accelerates the sub in the respective direction.
If your sub is swimming to the left with full speed, you have to press the right cursor key multiple to get it stopped or to get it swimming to the other side.

#3

no comments? ???

#4

Worked nicely on MacOSX. A fun little game, good work :).

#5

a) Why is it signed? (Dont sign it if it isnt necessary.)
b) The controls are silly. Is it like that in the original, too? I would get rid of that tapping. Its unintuitive and it doesnt serve any purpose.

Cant comment on the game itself. QPC is leaping here if there is lots of activity on the bus. That means that the timer randomly reports x second jumps whenever it feels like doing so. Well, you can ignore this problemā€¦ there arent many machines affected.

Oh and two thingsā€¦ get rid of those modal dialogs (use the main window instead) and you also might want to try to start the game directly with some sensible stock of weapons and no cash (instead of starting with the shop).

#6

Great Game!

#7

@ oNyx:

  • O.k. I changed the controls a bit. I think it is better now :wink:
  • I donā€™t changed anything at the shop. I like the idea to let the player decide the amount of weapons/upgrades he uses at game start.
  • Whatā€™s wrong with modal dialogs?

Thank you for the comments. :slight_smile:

#8

Whatā€™s wrong with modal dialogs?

In this game they dont serve any purposeā€¦ I guess you only made it this way because you thought it would be easier to write it like this, but hmmā€¦ well, its not much of a difference actually.

Its also easier to make it fullscreen (requires signing) without those modal dialogs.

The removal of the startup shop session is a very common tweak for getting into the game quicker. Sure its only a few clicks less, but humans arent that objective if it comes to something like that. Before you can actually play some game there is some initial ā€œpriceā€ to pay. Things like getting the game disk, putting it into the console, checking the mem card, pressing the power power button, turn the tv on, find pad #1, wait for the boot up logo to pass, loading, menuā€¦ and now if there are several things to do before getting into the game it can get sorta annoyingā€¦ and then loadingā€¦ meh. (With PC games its pretty much the same.)

Its a nice collection of minor annoyances and you should always try to get rid of as many as possible. Or at least try to make it less annoying (eg by improving loading times). If you do so, people will be more likely to play the game again.

Sureā€¦ if you only write the game for yourself, its different. But its interesting to look at different aspects from different angles, finding pretty good compromises, and putting your engineer mindset aside. It also doesnt really matter if you only do this for the fun of it or for moneyā€¦ if a lot of people enjoy playing your game its damn rewarding either way.

(Sorry for sounding so full of myself. I cant help it. :P)

#9

The game is little bit frustrating. Level 1 is really easy and gets boring after a while. On the other hand level 2 is cool, but I tend to die very quickly. This means I do level 1 over and over again to get to level 2 and then quickly I die.

Is it possible to repeat level 2 letā€™s say after you completed level 1?

#10

Thank you for your interesting comments.

  • I removed the startup shop session ;D
  • I activated a funcitonality I used during development: If youā€™re pressing space at start screen you will start at the previous level. This functionality isnā€™t documented and Iā€™m not sure if I should keep it. :-\ (Donā€™t press Space when starting the game for the first time - you will start without amunition :wink: )
#11

Oh and the controls are certainly better this way.

You could try some slightly different button layout like w=v torpedo (up), s=mine (down) and d=h torpedo (right). With this layout its easier to memorize the buttons, because there is some simple logic to it. You could also use w=v torpedo (up), s=mine (down), d=h torpedo right (right) and a=h torpedo left (left heh), but that would change the gameplay a bitā€¦ cant tell how much of a change it would be.

#12

Yes, but now it is:

(a)mmo (o.k. bad analogy :wink: )
(s)urface-torpedo
(d)rop waterbomb

;D

I donā€™t want to have two different buttons for firing torpedos to left/right. I thought about this when designing the controls. My first idea was to have only one button for firing torpedos (depending on the sub movement) like it was in the original Seafox game.

But nevertheless the idea of having some copy of the functionalities at the keybord sounds good. I will think about this.

#13

I would say the keys are ok.

I tried again, however, I guess your last change crashes the game. I get the following message when level 1 ends:

Exception in thread ā€œThread-8ā€ java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.awt.AWTPermission setWindowAlwaysOnTop)
at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.setAlwaysOnTop(Unknown Source)
at org.ralfbauer.seafox.shop.Shop.(Shop.java:74)
at org.ralfbauer.seafox.JSeafox.createShop(JSeafox.java:551)
at org.ralfbauer.seafox.JSeafox.doLogic(JSeafox.java:455)
at org.ralfbauer.game.Controler.doAllLogic(Controler.java:74)
at org.ralfbauer.game.Controler.run(Controler.java:36)

#14

fixed the problem. :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

Uh hmmā€¦ yeah, the controls donā€™t work properly. I started the game up, started perfectly. I can move my ship and etc, however, thatā€™s all I can do. The keys A, S, and D donā€™t do anything, as described on the title screen. Also, after about a minute or so, an airplane came flying past, dropped a bomb on me, and I got a game over message, than the game was just stuck there and the game didnā€™t redraw after that.

EDIT: After restarting it about four times, I finally had missiles. So I got a chance to play it. And overall, itā€™s not very good. First off, the sub accelarates way too slow. And that airplane that comes and drops a bomb, the bomb is a homing missile and too hard to avoid it, especially if thatā€™s just level one. Despite the great graphics, I give it a 2 out of 5.

#16

Maybe you started with SPACE instead of ENTER? That is an option I used for testing which isnā€™t removed yet.
ENTER starts the game as it should be.
SPACE starts the game at the same level where you died before. This doesnā€™t work at the first play.

The airplane which drops the bomb should keep you in a certain depth. It should prevent the player from playing at the surface as this is a submarine. :wink:

#17

Great game.

The aeroplabe bombs are a bit hard though, especially the way you canā€™t seem to shoot them except from below. They shouldnā€™t kill instantly either.

Regardless, its fun!

#18

Haha! Thatā€™s what was wrong. I was always hitting the SPACE key. I played it again today, and the sub seems to move faster (I think I had a lot of programs open before). Itā€™s actually quite good. However, that airplaneā€™s bomb is just too much for the first level. I canā€™t even pass the first level.

Jamison

#19

You should try to kill it from below with a surface torpedo.
Another strategy would be to surface the sub, but not for too long. The fighter drops the bomb only when you above a certain depth.