Kinetic

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

A puzzle game I’ve been slowly developing over a few months.
It uses attract/repel forces as the main game mechanic.
In each level, the objective is to greenlight all red panels, which happens when an “electron” passes over it.
Honestly, I’m not even sure if the title is appropriate; the highest physics I’ve taken so far is from high school :stuck_out_tongue:
So any input would be appreciated, and if anyone can come up with a more appropriate/better title, that would be cool.

Some things I should work on:
-More accurate force visualizations (halos)
-Better/easier dragging
-More levels (goal is 50 total, made 30 so far)
-Saves in user folder
-Better wordings for tutorial
-Maybe more sound other than the “bloop”
-A problem with buttons

(desktop only for now)
Link (updated 11/26): https://www.dropbox.com/s/n92ojpkmt90pyqv/kinetic20141126.jar?dl=0

#2

Very fun little game!
Simple mechanics, but still very fun.

The fact that the circles around the force sources are finite but the actual force is not is a bit missleading, maybe let the brightness decrease faster or make the circles way bigger, but thats something you understand pretty quickly while playing anyways…

Also a bit annoying is that you are putting a single .jar (of not big size) into its own .zip and offering THAT as download, maybe just offer the .jar?

Overall: good job!

#3

Thanks for the input!
For the forces, yeah, I was afraid of that; I think I’ll make the “halo” fade out with distance.

I was thinking of putting just the jar, but it creates a folder with data in it, so I put it in a folder/zip to have it contained.
I’ll have a link with just the jar in case.

#4

Wait, what? Could you explain that?

#5

I meant that it creates a folder in the folder the jar is in, so if the jar is executed in the Downloads folder, a new folder would be created in the Downloads folder. Personally, I wouldn’t like that since it crowds the (Downloads) folder.
I’m not sure if I worded that well.

#6

Use the user folder to store the data. Nice funny little game though.

#7

updated:
-changed halos
-created 50 levels
-saves in user directory

#8

cool game! It’s easy to keep playing and trying to find the right solution. The main problem I see is that the levels need re-ordering / re-working a bit. They randomly go from really easy where you get it on the first go, to really hard where it might take 20-30 tries. The sense of progression is lost when you beat a really hard level and then the following level nearly wins itself.

I didnt realize you had updated, and played the older version. the new shading is really good, but i think the drag line and the grid you added spoil it a bit… perhaps make the grid very faint and possibly have it present all the time.

#9

I love the shaders, good job!