Mini Golf (preview)

Contests 4K Game Competition - 2008
#1

3D 9 hole Mini Golf

http://games.7sun.com/4k/golf/v0.9-dollar-100.gif

http://games.7sun.com/4k/golf/golf.jnlp

I’m sure you all know the object of this game. :stuck_out_tongue:

But for those of you that are still a little mystified… the object of the game is to get the ball (thats the small round yellow thing) in the hole (thats the small round black thing in the ground with the flag sticking out of it) in the fewest number of shots you can. The total at the end is the number of shots taken for each of the 9 holes added up. There, happy now? :slight_smile:

Hope you have fun, Tim.

Controls

[tr][td]1/2/3 (at start)[/td][td]- Start playing on course 1, 2 or 3[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Left/Right[/td][td]- Turn left/right[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Up/Down[/td][td]- Elevate view up/down[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]A/Z[/td][td]- Zoom in/out[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Space bar[/td][td]- Hold down a while and then release to hit the ball.
The longer you hold the bar down, the harder you will hit the ball[/td][/tr]

EDIT: Updated for v0.91

#2

Nice! Clever use of glyphs for level designs. =)

Are you using midi for the sound? You might want to check that it works with the contest rules, there was some mention about midi there iirc.

#3

Thanks. It saved quite a bit of space, and thus has allowed the game to have lots more holes. I plan on adding some more later too (still got a-z, A-Z to use. :slight_smile: )

I am using midi yes. I’ll check the rules as you say. I’m not installing a sound bank or anything though… I’m prepared to live with there being no sound at all. :slight_smile:

Update
The rule about midi says this:

[quote]No soundbanks may be used because they are not a default part of the “public” JRE. You will have to create your sounds at runtime rather than use MIDIs.
[/quote]
I guess I’d like to get a ruling here. It seems silly to disallow usage of midi when the game doesn’t explicitly try to install it’s own soundbanks. I mean, why can we use the fonts on the machine that aren’t installed by the JRE? I’m quite prepared for the game to have no sound if the midi calls fail. Doesn’t the system default to using the default midi device on the system if there are no soundbanks installed?

Opinions anyone?

Anyway, if it really is a no-no, then I’ll take the midi code out… I’ll have more space for something else then!

Cheers, Tim.

#4

java.lang.Exception
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.continueLaunch(Launcher.java:908)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleApplicationDesc(Launcher.java:515)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.handleLaunchFile(Launcher.java:218)
at com.sun.javaws.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:165)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

Solaris box in school. JRE 1.5 if I’m not mistaken.

Oh, and it looks awesomely, superbly, cool. This will be one hell of a contest, methinks :slight_smile:

EDIT: Tried it on a windows machine. I love it. Absolutely love it. Your mapmaking is a stroke of genius, the graphics are superb, and the transitions between levels make it all that much better. With this and t4kns, this contest is guaranteed to be splendid no matter what :>

EDIT2: If there’s any space left, how about letting players make a map by pressing an ASCII key (allowing all ascii chars for maps).

#5

Thanks for this report. Can I ask… when did it happen? Was it before the game got started, or during play?

I have an algorithm that uses 2 angles to define where the ball starts and the position of the flag. I worry that this algorithm is the reason for the crash… the fonts are different on different machines, so it’s tricky for me to test.

Another possibility is that I’ve compiled with 1.6, but using the -source 1.5 -target 1.5 flags. Would this be a problem under Solaris? It may be that proguard (3.7) has buggered too I suppose.

To all: Can anyone try it on other non-Windows machines and report any problems… thanks.

:slight_smile: Thanks for the nice comment.

My hole definitions have a character plus 2 angles. I guess it would be possible, but it may take up too much space to implement. I’ll think about it as I go along.

Cheers, Tim.

#6

You are allowed to use Midi. You just need to know that the Soundbank that comes with the JDK is not the same as the one that comes with the JRE. So you need to have it tested on the public JRE to see if it still works. Even if the sound does not work, but you game can continue without it you are fine. If your game crashes on trying to get some Midi that is not available then you will be disqualified because your game won’t start.

Nice game by the way.

#7

smart,polished, great game!

ps: i got a lot of exception in the java console but game didn’t crash and I was able to continue playing without probleme (I only seen them as the console open automatically on java).

#8

Glyphs heh… awesome idea! ;D

Awesome work.

#9

Was in school so I didn’t have much time to look into details, and I don’t have solaris at home… Anyway, it was during launch, I think - just when I clicked run, so either at invocation (although it didn’t say invocationtargetexception, so it doesn’t seem that way) or possibly during loading. No frame showed.

Again, I’m totally in love with this game :slight_smile:

#10

Thanks DzzD.

I don’t see any here when I run in my 1.6 Windows system… what OS are you running on?

Is there any chance you could copy and paste one of the exceptions here? So that I could see which one it was and where it occurred. Thanks in advance. :slight_smile:

Cheers, Tim.

#11

OK, thanks for the info. Sounds like it’s going to be tricky for me to figure out! :slight_smile:

I think one of the things I’ll do is release a version that hasn’t got the midi sound in it – maybe the sound’s the problem.

Also I’ll look at making sure that proguard doesn’t use the 1.6 rt library.

The I might add some extra bits… Ideas for extra bits so far are:

  1. Add stars or clouds in the background.
  2. Add another course (one that uses some of the more interesting letters I think, although they all seem a bit dull).
  3. Add a mat where the ball starts.
  4. Change space bar so if it’s held for a while it goes back down to 0 (Arni Arent’s idea).
  5. Add a putter to hit the ball with.
  6. Make the flag wave in the wind.
  7. Add a user defined hole (Morre’s idea).

Cheers, Tim.

#12

[quote]1. Add stars or clouds in the background.
2. Add another course (one that uses some of the more interesting letters I think, although they all seem a bit dull).
3. Add a mat where the ball starts.
4. Change space bar so if it’s held for a while it goes back down to 0 (Arni Arent’s idea).
5. Add a putter to hit the ball with.
6. Make the flag wave in the wind.
7. Add a user defined hole (Morre’s idea).
[/quote]
maybe you may add some “traps” when levels become harder

[quote]Thanks DzzD.

I don’t see any here when I run in my 1.6 Windows system… what OS are you running on?
[/quote]
AMD 2000/2100 ? (little tuned :wink: ) Windows XP SP2 JVM 1.6, I cant post exception right now as it I cant start the game right now the link hang?!,but I will as soon as I will be able to start it again.

#13

I think the updated release should have fixed this… I was actually compiling as 1.6, not as 1.5.
If you could try the new version on the solaris box, I’d be grateful. :slight_smile:

Cheers, Tim.

#14

Dont know if it is relatted to last update but, Game finished :wink: without any exception, Score 32 :), I saw Max score==99 ?? is it true ?

I notice two thing while playing : sometime rotation to take the good direction is a little too slow when needed to rotate a lot, also it would be nice to have an arrow showing the excact ball direction

#15

99 is just the initial setting for the best score. It means that if you finish the course, you’ll have the best score. When you start another game, the best score will change.

The lower the score the better you’ve done. It’s not too hard to get 25 or less. I think I got 21 once on the 2nd course.

I agree. I’ll probably do something about that… I’ll add it to my list.

I’m not so sure about this one. I did actually have such an arrow in one of my development versions, but I took it out in the end. I think it’s good to make people try to figure out what the best direction is… after all, there’s no arrow on the ground when you play golf for real! :slight_smile:

Thanks for your comments, Tim.

#16

Two ideas;

  • Make ‘4’ and make it a time-based, so you got x-seconds to finish each track from the first hit on the ball.
  • Add a line straight forward, not a very long one, just one that shows the direction. I think some people are confused when they start the game for the first time.
#17

I don’t think an arrow is necessary. You just rotate the camera down so you are looking over the ball to find your direction.

#18

Haven’t had another chance to try it on a Solaris box and I’m not at them very often, but I will try it again if I get the chance :slight_smile:

#19

Tried it on the solaris machines, works now. Probably the JRE version that was the issue? :slight_smile:

#20

Thanks for that. Yes, I reckon it was the version… I realised that in copying backwards and forwards between 2 machines, one with 1.5 and one with 1.6, that I somehow lost my -version 1.5 -target 1.5 settings. :slight_smile:

Cheers, Tim.